He forced open the case, and saw, roughly scratched
on the inside, the letter D. He now recognised it; he remembered having
once fixed a glass in this very watch for Dollond, about a month before
the latter's disappearance. Continuing his search Whitson found the iron
heel-plate of a boot, and a small bunch of keys.
Whitson drew his revolver, and picking up the torch went into the
terminal chamber. Four shots, fired in quick succession, reverberated
immediately afterward through the cavern.
Whitson then went outside to Langley, whom he found sitting down near
the fire, looking if possible, more ghastly than before. The presence of
Whitson seemed, however, to act on him as a kind of tonic, and he soon
pulled himself together sufficiently to assist in piling a quantity of
fuel upon the already sinking fire, which soon blazed brightly, lighting
up the mouth of the cavern and the space in front of it. One of the
bodies of the men who had been shot was lying on its side, with the face
toward the fire. Whitson examined the mouth, pushing back the upper
lip with a piece of stick.
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