ing, and when Elsa
jumped out and rushed upon her husband, he clapped his hands to his ears
and retreated as far as the chamber permitted.

"She has gone mad, already! The woman is dement! Hark, the clamor!"

Then he remembered his first fear and clutched his wife's arm, which
promptly went around his neck and threatened him with suffocation.

"Well, well, I never had no wife, but if I'd had I wouldn't cared to
have her choke me to death a-loving me, nor split my ears a-telling me
of it," commented "Forty-niner," dryly.

At which Elsa's screams instantly ceased, and she turned her attention
upon him.

"Where is it, thief? Give it up, this minute! How could you rob me of my
hard-earned money? That was to buy the mine--and the vein runs deep--for
my little boy, my child! 'Twas Antonio Bernal, the great man, told us
already of the deed you stole! But I believed him not--I. Now, give me my
money, my money--money!"

Overcome by her own violent emotion, rather than by any opposition of
poor Ephraim's, her hands slid from his shoulders, which she had been
shaking as if she would jingle the cash from his pockets, and her plump
person settled limply against him for support.

"Hello, here, woman! This is a drop too much! Take the creature,
Winkler, and find out if you can what in misery ails her. She's clean
out of her wits."

Instinctively, Jessica had placed herself at the old sharpshooter's
side. He should feel that she did not believe this terrible accusation,
which recalled to her, with painful significance, the parting words of
Antonio Bernal as he had ridden away from her window that morning.
These had practically accused him of stealing the missing deed, and
now came Elsa with this talk of "money, money." She brushed her hand
across her eyes as if to waken herself from some frightful dream and then
smiled up into Ephraim's eyes, now bent inquiringly upon her. Dim as
the light was, there was yet sufficient descending through the shallow
shaft to reveal each troubled face to the other, and the old man's
own frightened at the confiding trust of his beloved pupil's.

"Never mind her. Let her scream and loll around, if she wants to. What
matters it? Little lady, am I or am I not a--a--that pizen thing she
called me?"

"Never!"

"Then come on. Let's get out of this."

But he was not to be permitted to escape so easily. Elsa had now
recovered her full strength and, oddly enough, her composure. She
waved her husba