"
"A plot to fire the mine!" said the man, all aghast. "Why, who by? Hy!
cage ready there!"
"One Burnley, but he's bribed by a stranger. Send me down to warn my
father; but you run and seize that villain; you can not mistake him. He
wears a light suit of tweed, all one color. He has very black eyebrows,
and a face like a corpse, and a large gold ring on the little finger of
his right hand. You will find him somewhere near my father's cottage.
Neither you nor I have a moment to lose."
Then the deputy called three more men, and made for Hope's cottage, while
Grace went down in the cage.
Bartley fled in mortal terror to his own house, and began to pack up his
things to leave the country. Monckton withdrew to the clump of fir-trees,
and from that thin shelter watched the mine, intending to levant as soon
as he should see Hope come up safe and sound; but, when he saw three or
four men start from the mine and run across to him, he took the alarm and
sought the thicker shelter of a copse hard by. It was a very thick cover,
good for temporary concealment; but he soon found it was so narrow that
he couldn't emerge from it on either side without being seen at once, and
his quick wit told him that Grace had denounced him, and probably
described him accurately to the miners; he was in mortal terror, but not
unprepared for this sort of danger.
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