‘Her father!  Her father!  Her father!’

There was something to be done—­much to be done, and one important thing, one thing that meant life or death; but these must come after.  Now he was wild to know all that the thieves might tell.

Rogers was the first to come crawling back to the tree.  He scattered the loose rubbish in the hollow trunk, and uttered a fierce oath.

‘It’s gone, gone, gone!’ he almost shouted as Shine joined him.

‘You lie, you lie!  You want to rob me!’ the long searcher had flown at his throat, and for a few seconds they struggled together, but Rogers threw the older man off fiercely and dragged him by the throat to the tree.

‘Feel, search, look for yourself, you hound!’ he cried.  ‘Could I eat it?’

Shine, going on his hands and knees, clawed amongst the rubbish; then, whining and muttering, went scratching about like a dog, seeking high and low, and Rogers followed him blaspheming with insensate fury.

‘It’s no good, I tell you, you snuffling, whimpering, white-livered cur!’ he said.  ‘Those men have got away with it, curse them!’

But Ephraim continued his search, creeping under the scrub, scratching in the grass; and as he searched his whimper grew louder and louder, and he cried like an old woman at a wake.

‘An’ we killed a man, we killed a man!’ he wailed again and again.

Rogers rushed at him viciously, and kicked him heavily in the ribs.

‘Get up, you dog!’ he cried hoarsely, with a string of oaths.  He dragged Shine to his feet, and continned:  ‘Listen to me.  Go home an’ go to bed fer a while.  Turn up at the mine all right at one, and in the mornin’.  Keep your mouth shut, an’ wait till you hear from me again, or—­or—­’ He did not finish his threat.  After a moment he continued, in a more composed tone:  ’We’re in no danger if we’ve not been seen.  That was the trooper after the cub Haddon.  He’s got the gold all right.  Bury the key.  Get back to your house, an’ lie down fer a while.  Be careful—­p’raps we’re watched now.’

The two men moved off together.  After they had passed the tips Dick quickly made his way into the quarry, and from thence to the drive of the Mount of Gold.

CHAPTER XV.

Her father did it!  Her father!  Her father!  Dick continued to repeat these words as he procured candles and prepared himself for a journey into the deep mines.  He was conscious of a double duty; he must rescue Harry Hardy from the rising waters and save the father of Christina Shine from a terrible crime, and yet he went about his task as if moved by an external impulse.  The work had been mapped out for him by someone or something apart, and he undertook it without a thought of its dangers or a hint of revolt.  In fact, he was feverishly anxious to face the black Red Hand shaft and the great, lone workings beyond.  He lit one candle, put several