a look of anxiety crossed her
face as she continued:--

"I am worried about Ralph. He has not yet come from the breaker."

She glanced up at the little clock on the shelf, and then went to look
out from the window.

The man on the bed moved and moaned, and she went back to him.

"Perhaps we had better send some one to look for the boy," said
Goodlaw. "I will go myself--"

He was interrupted by the opening of the door. Andy Gilgallon stood
on the threshold and looked in with amazement. He had not expected to
find the lady and the lawyer there.

"I come to see Bachelor Billy," he said. "Me an' him work togither at
the head. He got it worse nor I did. I'm over it, only I'm wake yit.
The likes o' it was niver seen afoor."

He looked curiously in at the bed where his comrade was lying.

"Come in," said Mrs. Burnham, "come in and look at him. He's not
conscious yet, but I think he'll soon come to himself."

The man entered the room, walking on the toes of his clumsy shoes.

"Have you seen anything of Ralph since the fire?" continued the lady.

Andy stopped and looked incredulously at his questioner.

"An' have ye not heard?" he asked.

"Heard what, Andy?" she replied, her face paling as she noted the
man's strange look.

"Why, they didn't get 'im out," he said. "It's in the mine he is,
sure, mum."

She stood for a moment in silence, her face as white as the wall
behind her. Then she clasped her hands tightly together and all the
muscles of her body grew rigid in the desperate effort to remain calm
for the sake of the unconscious man on the bed, for the sake of the
lost boy in the mine, for the sake of her own ability to think and to
act.

Goodlaw saw the struggle and rose from his chair.

"It's a dangerous imprisonment," he said, "but not, of necessity, a
fatal one."

She still stood staring silently at the messenger who had brought to
her these dreadful tidings.

"They're a-thryin' to get to the mouth o' the shaft now," said Andy.
"They're a-dhraggin' the timbers away; timbers wid the fire in 'em
yit. Ye'd be shtartled to see 'em, mum."

Then the lady spoke.

"I will go to the shaft," she said. Her carriage was already at the
door; she started toward it, throwing a light wrap across her arm as
she went.

Again the man on the bed moved and moaned.

"Stay with him," she said to Andy, "until I come myself, or send some
one to relieve you. See that he has everything he needs. He is my
charge."