" XIX--The Return to Camp Bird 206 " XX--Forging the Fetters 216 " XXI--Two Crimes by the Same Hand 224 " XXII--The Fetters Broken 237 " XXIII--The Mask Lifted 247 " XXIV--Foreshadowings 254 " XXV--The "Hermitage" 262 " XXVI--John Britton's Story 269 " XXVII--The Rending of the Veil 274 " XXVIII--"As a Dream when One Awaketh" 278 " XXIX--John Darrell's Story 285 " XXX--After Many Years 295 " XXXI--An Eastern Home 300 " XXXII--Marion Holmes 308 " XXXIII--Into the Fulness of Life 316 " XXXIV--A Warning 321 " XXXV--A Fiend at Bay 330 " XXXVI--Senora Martinez 337 " XXXVII--The Identification 343 " XXXVIII--Within the "Pocket" 352 " XXXIV--At the Time Appointed 360 AT THE TIME APPOINTED _Chapter I_ JOHN DARRELL Upon a small station on one of the transcontinental lines winding among the mountains far above the level of the sea, the burning rays of the noonday sun fell so fiercely that the few buildings seemed ready to ignite from the intense heat. A season of unusual drought had added to the natural desolation of the scene. Mountains and foot-hills were blackened by smouldering fires among the timber, while a dense pall of smoke entirely hid the distant ranges from view. Patches of sage-brush and bunch grass, burned sere and brown, alternated with barren stretches of sand from which piles of rubble rose here and there, telling of worked-out and abandoned mines. Occasionally a current of air stole noiselessly down from the canyon above, but its breath scorched the withered vegetation like the blast from a furnace. Not a sound broke the stillness; life itself seemed temporarily suspended, while the very air pulsated and vibrated with the heat, rising in thin, quivering columns. Suddenly the silence was broken by the rapid approach of the stage from a distant mining camp, rattling noisily down the street, followed by a slight stir within the apparently deserted station. Whirling at breakneck pace around a sharp turn, it stopped precipitately, amid a blinding cloud of dust, to deposit its passengers at the depot.