Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-03-06
Copyright by w. O. Chapman,

| all. Another thing that led Lee to
that conclusion was the fact that no
mining operations had been carried
on there for considerable time-long
enough for the pans to have rusted
| through.
If Pelly had taken refuge within the
gorge, 1t was incredible that he would
not have resumed operations.
| And these seemed to have been in
terrupted Unexpectedly, to judge from
the exposure of the pans to wind and
weather.
Perplexed and disappointed, Lee
turned his thoughts toward the cap
ture of the man who had attacked him
in the tunnel. He could no doubt
throw light on Pelly's whereabouts.
Perhaps he was the assistant of whom
Joyce had spoken.
Lee expected that he would be Turk
ing in the tunnel, ready to renew his
attack, but this time there should be
no such fiasco as before.
| Lee made his way back on the oppo-
site side-of the gorge. Here there was
a thick growth of dwarfed scrub laurel,
which had taken root in the soil
brought down by the little stream, and
| bordered 1t, extending back from 1t
| toward the cliff in a sort Of miniature
jungle. Something protruding out of
this growth arrested Lees attention.
| It was a wooden cross carved with
the name HELENE PELLY, standing
up above a low cairn of boulders.
| Lee stood and looked, and vaguely
mournful thoughts coursed through
his mind 1t was a sad and lonely
| burying place for Joyces mother. Its
existence there was in itself a testi-
mony to the old mans mental con-
dition--that he should have carried
his wife's body through the tunnel to
that place of his dreams. And yet 1t
was certain that no prowling thing
would ever violate that grave.
| Lee went on, and, few steps fur
Their, stumbled against something else.
1t was the skeleton of man, the
bones protruding through the rents and
tatters of the scarecrow clothes. The
| laurel tangles sprouted between the
the flesh had long since disappeared. s
One bony hand still tightly clutched
the handle of a large, old-fashioned
revolver. The muzzle was choked with
rust; there were rusted cartridges in
side.
Disengaging 1t with difficulty from
the fingers, Lee saw, on the less rusted
portion of the handle which they had
protected, the initials. G. p.
But he hardly needed that to know
that his mission was at an end, and
the last barrier between himself and
Joyce overthrown.
The problem so inscrutable an
hour before had been solved. All cause
for antagonism between them had
come, to an end.
And Lee was conscious of quiet
satisfaction. 1t was the happiest solu-
ton, and though Joyce would grieye,
she would come to see that it was the
best. She would be glad, after the
first shock, that her father would not
have to face the ordeal which he had
dreaded for so many years.
But as Lee looked down at the re-
mains of the dead man, he became
aware of a single fact. Nearly every
bone on one side of the skeleton was
broken-the skull, ribs. arm and leg
bones, and pelvis
Then Pelly had not died of stroke
or from a sudden attack of heart fall
ure. He had fallen from the summit of
the cliff perhaps he had been
flung down, for the revolver which he
had been clutching showed that he had
either encountered or anticipated an
enemy.
And, filed with mixture of emo
tions-happiness for their future, grief
for the news that he must break to
Joyce, Lee made his way toward the
tunnel.
But all at once he made the singular
and unexpected discovery that he did
not know where the entrance was.