The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-01-02

err hand en- a rock wall or a foot
on the uneven floor under her told
her which way to go, moved on with
out hesitation. Judith estimated
roughly that they had come fifty
yards from the outside ledge in front
of the cave when she was pushed
down and felt the rude bed of fir
boughs under her.
49, grunted the woman, for the
first time removing her hard hand
from the girls shoulder, 1--WE got you
again, my pretty And this time you
don't play any more little tricks on
your old MOTHER
She was gone swiftly, all but ST.
lently, through the gloom, her form
vaguely outlined against the lanterns
glimmer, to bring the food and water
which she had set down when she
came In. Judith drank and ate.
1t was only little by little, in frag-
ments which she obtained during the
slow days which followed, that she
came to understand Trevors' scheme.
And the scheme was In keeping with
the man; so far as 1t was possible,
Bayne Trevors was still playing safe.
Mad Ruth was an odd mixture Of
crazed suspicion, shrewd cunning,
cruelty, and madness. Perhaps very
long ago-Judith came to believe that
it had occurred at the time when she
had gone mad, for God knows what
reason-Mad Ruth had had a little
daughter. The girl had been lost to
her. whether through death when an
infant, or some tragic accident when
a young girl, Judith never knew. But
Ruth's heart had been bound up in
that baby of hers; when madness
came, 1t centered and turned upon
the return of her child, "Who had
run away from her, but who would
come back some time" Trevors,
having learned of her mad passion,
had shaped it to his purpose.
But that was not all. Judith had
been brought TO the cave early Sum
day morning. Sunday afternoon there
came to the cave a well-dressed man
carrying little black bag in his hand.
He talked with Ruth; he took up the
lantern and came to look at Judith.
$50 I'll know you again." he
laughed.
Then he went away. III fragments
which through long, empty hours her
busy mind pieced together, bridging
the gaps, she grasped the rest 5f Trev-
ors' plan. This man was a physician,
sent here from some one of the many
mining towns In the mountains, prob
ably from camp twenty or thirty
miles away. He, too, was Trevors
hireling. Should Judith ever accuse
Trevors of having brought her here,
there was another story to be told.
And this man would tell 1t: How he
had been summoned here to attend a
girl who had had fall, who had
wandered delirious through the noun
tains until Ruth had found her; whom
to move her for fear of permanent
shock to her reason; who could give
them no help to establish her identity !;
who had a thousand absurd fears and
fancies and accusations to make; who
In her babbling had at one time &C
cused Bayne Trevors of having fore.
IDLY abducted her; who at another had
cried that it was a man named Car
son, man named Lee, who had
brought her here.
Judith spent many long hour ex-
ploring her prison, hoping to find a
way out. So far as she knew she had
but one person to reckon with, Mad
Ruth. True, Trevors had said that
he'd have man on the ledge outside
day and night; Judith had never seen
such person, had never heard his
voice, and began to believe that it was
bit of bluff on Trevors' part But
she had never again been where she
could look out of the caves mouth,
since Mad Ruth had her own pallet
on the floor at the narrOwest part
of the cave where 1t was like the neck
of a monster bottle, and always at
the first sound of the girls approach.
was on her feet to thrust her back.
Clearly there was no way out of this
place of shadows except that through
which she had come.
Judith sought an explanation of her
Imprisonment, and after long cropping
she came very near the truth: Trev-
ors would work his will with Hampton
through Hampton's faith in him and
admiration for him. And, in her alb
sence. Hampton was the head of Blue
Lake ranch.
Sunday night, hearing Mad Ruth
moving cautiously, Judith raised her
self on her elbow, listening. She was
confident that the woman was moving
toward the caves mouth; she hoped
wildly that Mad Ruth was tricked into
believing her asleep and was going
out. Her shoes in her hands, her
stockinged feet falling lightly, Judith
moved toward the mad woman's
couch.
Ruth was going out; was In fact
even now slipping out of the narrow
throat of the cave and to the ledge.
But Judith could not see her. For
new, unexpected obstacle was In her
way. Her outthrust hands touched
not rock walls but heavy wooden pam
els; she knew then that the narrow
neck of the cave was fitted with a
heavy door and that it had been
drawn shut, fastened from without.
In sudden access of furv and dos