ll glowed.

"It was in the cellar of the house that Sergeant Henry said the body
of Mrs. Arnold was laid, was it not?" asked Dr. Coues.

"Yes," I replied.

"Then if all were killed after he left--shot from time to time--would
not their remains be likely to be beside hers?"

"Not beside hers, I think. The last stand must have been made in the
fort."

"Then the bodies, or what is left of them, must lie under that
circular bed of coals, Duncan, if they died here."

"Probably, doctor. It's an uncanny thing to do, but we must stir the
coals and see."

A thorough search revealed nothing.

"Does th' liftinint moind that Sargint Hinery mintioned a covered way
that led from th' cellar to th' spring?" asked Private Tom Clary, who
wielded a rail beside me. "Perhaps th' pretty lassie and her frinds
are in that."

"That is so, Clary; thank you for the suggestion," I answered. "Can
you make out the opening?"

"Nothin' sure, sor. Behoind thim wagon-tires there sames to be a
natural slope of earth."

"Tip the tires over, Clary," I ordered; and presently a number of
tires, from which the fire had burned the felloes, spokes, and hubs,
fell into the coals, disclosing a recently filled aperture.

"Looks as if the end of a passage had been filled, doesn't it?" asked
the surgeon.

"It certainly does," I answered. "Let us go to the spring and
examine."

Accompanied by the doctor and several men, I rode to the spring. When
we arrived there we broke a way through the thick-set willows into an
irregular mass of small bowlders. Climbing over these, we found
ourselves at the mouth of a narrow passage about four feet high and
two feet wide.

"This must be the entrance to the covered way," I remarked, and
placing my head in the crevice, I called: "Oh, Mr. Arnold, we are
here--your friends from Fort Whipple!"

"Thank Heaven!" in a man's tones, came clearly through the entrance,
accompanied by a sudden outburst of sobs in girlish voices.

"We'll be there directly," spoke another man's voice--that of a
stranger. "We've heard your horses' hoofs jarring the ground for some
time, but we thought it safest to lay low until we were sure it wasn't
redskins."

Then followed the sound of steps, accompanied by voices, sounding at
the entrance, as a voice spoken in a long tube appears to be uttered
at the listener's end. Some time elapsed before those who seemed so
near appeared; but at last there emerged from the passage Mr. Arnold,
tw