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

ITS just as well that you know
whom you are up against" he said
as he held her with his hand heavy
on her shrinking shoulder.
Summoning all of the reckless fear
lessness which was her birthright, she
laughed at him coolly, laughed as the
two stood against the skyline, upon
the barren breast of lonesome land.
$50 you are fool, after all, Bayne
Treyors!" she jeered at him. Fool
enough to mix frst-hand in a danger
Gus undertaking"
| Trevors shrugged.
"Yes?' He slipped the handker-
chief into his pocket and stared at
her with CLINT of anger in the blue
gray of his eyes. He lifted his broad
shoulders. .Or wise man enough to
do my own work when needs be, and
when I'd have no bungling? I'm go
ing to square with you, girl Square
with you for meddling, for a bullet
hole in each shoulder. If there's a
fool In our little junketing party, it's
a girl who thought she could handle
a man's-size job
They went on, over the ridge and
down. Judith made no second attempt
to surprise him, for always his eyes
watched her. Nor did she seek to
hold back or in any way to hamper
him now. For, swiftly adjusting her.
| self to the new conditions, she made
her first decision: Trevors did think
sheer at her helplessness in that mans
way of his. Let him think her little
fool; let him hold her In his contempt !;
let him grow to think her cowed and
afraid and helpless. Then, when the
time came
| Again she had been blindfolded !;
seeing the look in Trevors' eyes, she
had offered no objection. Again she
had followed him in darkness made
at sunrise by bandage across her
eyes. Again, the bandage removed,
she winked at the sunlight. Again
they climbed ridges, dropped down
into tiny valleys, fought their way
i along thunderous ravines where the
water was dashed into white foam.
Again blindfolded, again trudging on,
her whole body beginning TO tremble
with fatigue. the weakness of hunger
upon her. And at length, out Of a
canyon, making perilous way up the
| steep walls of rock, they came to the
mouth of the black cavern In which
she lay now. waiting for the sound of
a stirring foot.
Only an instant had Judith stood
upon the ledge outside the cave before
she was thrust into the black Interior.
But in that instant her eager eyes had
made out, upon a tiny bit of table
| land across the chasm of the gorge,
a cabin, sending aloft a plume of
smoke.
Then, after an hour, the terri e
| woman had come to whom Trevors
had intrusted her, bringing food and
water in her hard. blackened hands,
carrying the Pickering fires of mad
ness in her unfathomable eyes. A
lantern set on the floor made rude
shadows, and out of them crept this
woman, leering at Trevors, peering at
Judith. licking her thin lips, and
chuckling to herself
II have brought her back to you,
Ruth" he said, speaking softly, more
! softly than Judith had thought the
man could speak. "You will know
what to do with her. And you will
not let her escape you again."
The mad woman, for only too plain
ly was her reason strangely mis-
shapen, stood in silence, her great
muscular body looming high above
Judith's, giant of woman, bigger
than Trevors even, broad and heavy,
her forearms thick and corded. her
bare throat like the bull neck of a
prize-fghter.
| II will know, I will know" she
said, her eyes filed with cunning, her
voice a strange singsong oddly at
variance with the coarse bigness of
her body. "Oh, no, she will never
escape from me again."
Il will have a man on the ledge
outside night and day." went on Trev-
ors. sBut we cannot be so sure of
others as we are of ourselves, Ruth.
You know that, don't you?"
"Oh, yes, l know" she answered
quickly. AS she spoke she suddenly
shot out her long arm so that her
great, bony hand fastened like a big
claw on the girls shoulder. II have
got her>again! She is mine, all mine.
oh, will keep her we'll"
In little while Trevors left. He
had not returned Mad Ruth, still
gripping Judith's shoulder, half led
her, half thrust her farther back In
the cavern. Judith made no resist
| ance. Always, even when terror was
uppermost she held one thought In
mind: 'If can make them think me
a little fool and q weakling, my
| chance may come after a while"
As the two women passed around
a bend In the sinuous tunnel-like cave,
the faint rays of the lantern they had
left behind them died out, and heavy
darkness shut them in Judith could
barely make out the huge form tow
ering over her. But Ruth, whether
her eyes were like cats and accus-
toned to this sombre place, or wheth-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS