The Holbrook news., 1922-11-10

as they walked along, Harry took the lead, holding his lantern far ahead of him, with one big hand behind 1t, as though for a reflector. Then, just as suddenly, he turned.
 Let's go out" came shortly.
 "Why?"
 Its thereI" In the light of the lantern, Harry's face was white, his big lips livid. Lets go"
 But Fairchild stopped him.
 Harry" he said. and there was de termination in his voice. "if it's there we've got to face 1t. Don't you think that certain people would make an investigation If we should happen to quit the mine now?"
 'The Rodaines :"
 Exactly. And how much worse would 1t be for them to tell the news than for usw
 Nobody as to tell 1t" Harry was staring at his carbide flare-"there's wye"
 But we can't take it, Harry. In my fathers letter was the statement that he made only one mistake-that of fear. I'm going to believe him and in spite of what I find here. I'm going to hold him innocent, and I'm going to be fair and square and above board about it all. There's nothing on my conscience-and know that if my father had not made the mistake of running away when he did. there would have been nothing on his"
 Harry shook his head.
 "'E couldn't do much else, Boy. Ro- daine was stronger in some ways then than he is now. That was in different days. That was in times when Squint Rodaine could lave gotten a 'undred men together Quicker'n a cats wink and lynched man without i'm 'aving your father, I'd ave done the same as e did. I'd ave run, too-'e'd ave paid for it with is life if e didn't, guilty or not guilty. And" he looked sharply toward the younger man you say to go On?"
 "Go on.' said .Fairchild, and he spoke the wordS between tightly clenched teeth. Harry turned his light before him, and once more shielded 1t with his big hand. A step-two, then:
 'Look-there- by the foot wallI"
 Fairchild forced his eyes in the dl- rection designated and stared intent ly. At first it appeared only like a succession of disjointed, broken stones, lying in straggly fashion along the footwall of the drift where it widened into the stope, or upward slant on the vein. Then, it came forth clearer, the thin outlines of something Fairchild, which sickened him, which caused him to fight down a sudden, panicky desire to shield his eyes and to run-a heap of age-denuded bones, the scraps of miners costume still clinging to them, the heavy shoes pro- over bony feet; a huddled. cramped skeleton of human beingl
 They could only stand and stare at it-this reminder f tragedy of a quarter of a century agone. Their lips refused to utter the words that strove to travel past them; they were two men dumb. dumb through a dis covery which they had forced them selves to face, through a fact which they hoped against, each more or less silently, yet felt sure must, sooner or later, come before them. And now it was here.
 And this was the reason that twen- ty years before, Thornton Fairchild, white, grim, had sought the aid of Harry and of Mother Howard. This was the reason that a woman had played the part of man, to all appearances only one of three disap- pointed miners seeking a new field. And yet
 .I know what you're thinking" It was Harry's voice, strangely hoarse and weak. "Fm thinking the same thing. But it mustn't be. Dead men don't always mean they've died-in a wye to cast reflections on the man that was with 'em. Do you get what I mean? You've said" and he looked hard into the cramped, suffering face | of Robert Fairchild that you were