CHAPTER XVI.—(Continued.)

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1991, 11 April 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XVl.—(Continued.)

"Does any one but you know of this place?*' he asked, suspiciously, as she held op the lamp for him to see around him. " Only Ellen." " What in it for ? What do you have such • hiding-place for ?" " Don't you see ?" she asked, "we discovered it by accident, and I have sometimes QMd it to bring fools into blindfold to frighten them with visions — have you forgot that I am a fortuneteller, and the witch of Mount Boban, Dan Lyons?" " I have forgotten nothing," he said sharply, " bat there is light here, or those ferns would not grow — mind, woman, how you dare to deocive me." " I am not deoeiving you," and she drew back a soreen of old bags as she said so, " there ii the pan I burn my herbs and sulphur in, and the skull that frightens gold out of fools' pockets, and as for light you will see it up there among the slopes of the roof when the ton ii not so low. And now I will show yon that I mean nothing unfair — follow me •till." She hobbled up a steep incline that was in a corner of the cave, and then turning a corner suddenly there was a dense screen of living verdure before Dan Lyons. "If you doubt me at any time, Dan," she •aid, "yon bare only to part them branches, and you are free on the side of Mount Roban. And now I must get baok for fear some one should get into the hut and look for me. I will bring you a bed and food and drink, and no polioeman can ever set an eye on you here." " Stay, Nan 1 If I want you, how am I to call you ?" " Knock at the trap-door , I shall hear yon, if not the first time, surely at the second." She put the lamp on a ledge of rock, and left the murderer there alone, with the sand »,nder hii feet and the ferns by his side, and he lay down to sleep again as criminals so often sleep, with the shadow of their terrible doom surrounding them closely.