The Press., 1883-07-05

He must have wandered into one of the old mines perhaps the very one in which his father had been killed, thought John- ny, with thrill of fear.
 But that could not be, because there were tracks all about there were a great many in the mud near the wall. As John ny looked about him in wonder, trying to find some explanation of the mystery, he suddenly caught sightsof something which looked out of place in a mine. It was seal-skin coat, and itsseemed to be thrown near the wall. Johnny lifted it, and dis closed 8 heap of tools, small and large Very queer looking tools they were, and if it had not been for ring of skeleton keys among them Johnny might not have guess ed at once, as he did, that they were bur glars tools There was 8 tin box too, which he tried to open, but found 1t se- curely locked He remembered that when the burglars stole the money and valuable papers from the Iron Companys office they had also stolen 8 seal-skin coat be- longing to MT. Bingham, the superintend- ent
 He had stumbled upon the hiding place of the burglars stolen treasures. It aO0s one of the old mines, probably the Con- oshawen, the most dangerous, where they
 
 the stolen money might be in that tin box. | The blood went dancing through John ny's veins, and his heart beat so loud that he could almost hear it.
 Keen detectives had been for long time in pursuit of those burglars and the stolen property, and had not found clew. It had been left for him, little nine year-old Johnny Pringle, whom nobody thought good for much of anything, and whom the doctor called Hop-o'-my- thumb. And the reward offered was thousand dollars
 Johnny scrambled back through the chink faster than he had come. He want ed to take that tin box with him, but it was too large. It is doubtful whether a boy ever ran faster since the world began than Johnny ran out Of that mine. He couldn't spend time to walk on the rails now he went splashing through the mud and water, falling now and then, and pick ing himself up without stopping to think whether he was hurt or not.
 But at last he found himself in the open air, all safe and sound. The pail with Jim's dinner in it was still hanging on his arm, but he couldn't stop to attend to that. He ran down Humpback Hill, across three fields where the snow-drifts reached to his waist, then down the railroad track to the village, and burst into the Iron Company's office with only enough breath left to gasp out
 Burglars tools !-seal-skin coat tin box !-old mine p But you may be sure it did not take the gentlemen in the office long to put those detached remarks togeth CT, and an expedition was instantly form ed, with Johnny as guide, to the old mine In the tin box they found intact all the money and papers that had been stoler from the Iron Company. And watct was set, and the very next night the bur glars were caught in the mine.
 l Johnny was the hero of the hour, anC what was of much more account, he re ceived the thousand dollars reward
 Jim said it was the first time he ever knew it to be lucky for fellow not to gel his dinner.
 But in spite of the thousand dollars : which, indeed, she wasn't quite able te believe in all at once-Johnny's mothe couldn't quite get over being nervous be cause Johnny had been in that dreadful old Conoshawen mine, where everybod. said the least jar was likely to bring disas
 ter. She hugged and kissed him, ant cried over him, and felt of his limbs to b' sure they were sound, and even in th' night she kept going into his room to b' sure that he was safe under the bedclothes Jim doesn't work in the mines now they bought a little farm with the thous and dollars, and live Sin clover"