The Holbrook news., 1922-11-10
CHAPTER XII.

Again there was a long moment of silence, while Harry stood paving at his mustache and while Robert Fair child sought to summon the strength to do the thing which was before him. All the soddenness of the old days had come back to him. ghosts which would not be driven away; memories of time when he was the grubbing. though willing slave of victim of fear-of a man whose life had been wrecked through terror of the day when intruders would break their way covery would be made. And it had remained for Robert Fairchild, the son, to find the hidden secret, for him to come upon the thing which had caused the agony of nearly thirty years of suffering, for him to face the alternative of again placing that grue- some find into hiding. or to square his shoulders before the world and take the consequences.
 There was no time to lose in making his decision. Beside him stood Harry, silent, morose. Before him-Fair- child closed his eyes in an attempt to shut out the sight of 1t. But still 1t was there, the crumpled heap of tat tered clothing and human remains, the awry, heavy shoes still shielding the fleshless bones of the feet. He turned blindly, his hands groping be- fore him.
 Harry" he called, Harry Get me out of here-I-can't stand 1t !"
 Wordlessly the big man came to his side. Wordlessly they made the trip back to the hole in the cave-in and then followed the trail of new-laid track to the shaft. Up-up-the trip seemed endless as they jerked and pulled on the weighted rope, that their shaft bucket might travel to the surface. Then, at the mouth of the tunnel, Robert Fairchild stood for a long time staring out over the soft hills and the radiance of the snowy range, far away. It gave him a new strength, a new determination. His eyes frightened with resolution. Then he turned to the faithful Harry, wait ing in the background.
 "There's no use trying to evade any thing, Harry. We've got to face the music. Will you go with me to notify the coroner-or would you rather stay here?'
 "I'1l go."
 Silently they trudged into town and to the little undertaking shop which also served as the office of the coro- ner. They made their report, then ac- companied the officer. together with the sheriff, back to the mine and into the drift. There once more they clambered through the hole in the cave-in and on toward the beginning of the stope. And there they pointed out their discovery.
 A wait for the remainder of that day-a day that seemed ages long, a day in which Robert Fairchild found himself facing the 1itor of the Bugle, and telling his story, Harry beside him. But he told only what he had found, nothing O; the past. nothing of the white-haired man who had waited by the window, cringing at the slight est sound on the old, vine-clad veran- da, nothing of the letter which he had found in the dusty safe. Nothing was asked regarding that; nothing could be gained by telling it. In the heart of Robert Fairchild was the convic- tion that somehow, some way, his fa- ther was innocent, and in his brain was a determination to fight for that innocence as long Gs 1t was humanly possible. But gossip told what he did not.
 There were those who remem- bered the departure of Thornton Fair