Waterbury Democrat., 1901-02-27
Christian Stewardship.
BY CHARLES M. SHELDON
ks { CHAPTER VIII.
1896, BY CONGREGATIONAL
 AND SUNDAY SCHOOL PUBLISHING soc1ET
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COMPLICATIONS.
 Stuart had known every foot of Cor nishtown as a boy and was familiar even now with most of the curious lit tie lanes and paths that cut it across and tracked up and down the side of the great hill like the marking of some gigantic game. There was probably no other place just like it in America. The prospecting holes were of various depths. Some of them had caved in at the sides and were shaped like old eel lars or cisterns with masses of rub Dish at the bottom. Others were wells, anywhere from 50 to 100 feet deep, and especially dangerous in winter, when the snow, lodging on bushes growing about the shafts mouth, art fully coEcealed the locality of danger.
 It was Stuart's first thought when he calmed himself to think and act that Rhena had attempted to make a short cut by one of the miners paths from the upper part of the settlement of Cornishtown to Champion and in the dark and confusion caused by the change which snow makes in the ap- pearance of old landmarks had stum- bled into one of the shafts. Under this conviction he ran back to the house where Rhena had been and from which he had just come himself, and, begging q lantern, he started out on a path which at first in his terror. he had for gotten. He had followed it but little way when the lantern revealed small black object right in the center of the path. He stopped eagerly and picked 1t up. It was a lady's winter glove trimmed with fur at the wrist. He her wearing that kind of glove few days before. He placed it in his pocket and went on as fast as he dared, ger and yet dreading with horror he nev- CT felt before the possible discoveries he might make. The miner who had come up with him had gone down to the settlement at Stuart's suggestion to rouse others to come out and join in the search. So he was alone up there in the mysterious shadows of the pine covered slope. Every step he took over the small, barely defined trail was like a step into an unknown land, and yet he was conscious, even as he dWelC with terror upon the strange adventure so suddenly thrust upon him, of going over that very path one warm summer day when a boy only 10 years old, and the smell of the balsams as they save out their peculiar pungent odor in the warmth of the sun seemed to be in his senses now. Several persons had evi- dently been over the path that vefy day, for the snow was trodden down, and4the marks of feet were not yet >IT 11x
 Quite a long distance from the place where the glove was found Stuart came to an old stump which marked a giant pine of many years before. The path turned about the foot of this stump, and on the other side of it as he strode up, praying in his heart for mercy and safety to be shown this woman, he saw her lying so still and white that he dared not think what it might mean. She had fallen over a mass of ore that had rolled into the path, and one hand and arm lay stretched out directly over one of the most dangerous pits on-the hill. So near had she been to instant death!
 With a cry Stuart caught her up. Still, he dared not question whether what he held was alive or dead. He said to himself he would not ask. He knew she was not conscious. He moved now with more of instinct than by sight or reason, feeling his way down the hill. He seemed to feel confident that he would not fall into any of the shafts with this burden. and with q strength and purpose that moved him with even more than his usual determi- nation he went on down, keeping be- fore him the glimmering light of the nearest cottage. Finally he had reach ed cross path to the one he had first entered and in which Rhena had met with her accident. The light from the cottage had disappeared. He was now in a hollow or depression of the slope which had sometimes been used by the miners for a rough roadway to one part of the Davis mine. and as he entered it he thought that he could feel rather than see that tracks had recently been made through the hollow. He went down very cautiously. Rhena was still unconscious.
 Suddenly q sound came to Stuart from above. He stopped and listened. It was the sound of sleighbells. He could not trust his hearing and listened