“And, now, jis’ tell dis chile how ye ’scape from de robbers’ den,” said Ebony.
“Well, we escaped to-night, by the assistance of a man disguised in a bear’s skin, and whom the robber-captain called Black Bear,” returned Willis; then turning to Barker, he continued: “This Mr. Barker escaped with us. He had been a prisoner there for three years. He knew uncle Wayland Sanford, Frank, years ago in California.”
“I am happy to meet the friend of my dear old uncle,” said Frank, grasping the thin, cold hand of Barker, “but of course, Willis has told you of uncle Wayland’s sudden and mysterious death.”
“Yes, my young friend, and I would have given my life to have seen your uncle before his death,” returned Barker.
“You must have cherished a great affection for him, Mr. Barker.”
“Not only that, young man, but I hold a secret that would have prolonged his life twenty years.”
Barker began and related the story of Wayland Sanford being convicted of murder at Miner’s Gulch on the Yuba, through the instrumentality of Duval Dungarvon, as the reader has already heard it from the lips of Dungarvon himself. Then he told how he had hid bleeding and mangled in the shaft for five days before he was taken out, more dead than alive, to find both Sanford and Dungarvon gone. Then he told how he had labored in the mines, accumulated a large fortune, started to his home in the East, was robbed of his gold in the mountains, and left for dead a second time; how he recovered and hid away in the mountains, where for years he remained a hunter, and finally fell into the hands of his would-be murderer, Duval Dungarvon, and that he had never heard of Wayland Sanford until he met Willis in prison.
“Then you are acquainted with these Black Hills?” said Frank, when Barker had finished his story.
“Yes, I knew every hill, hollow, and stream, and about two months before my incarceration in the robbers’ den, I had met and become acquainted with a young ranger in whom I took a deep interest, and whom I would love to see.”
“Did you make him a present of something once?” asked Frank, as a thought occurred to his mind.