At the Time Appointed

"Possibly in a detective story the main object is to thrill. If so, 'That Mainwaring Affair' is all right. The thrill is there, full measure, pressed down and running over."--Life, New York

"The book that reminds one of Anna Katherine Green in her palmiest days.... Keeps the reader on the alert, defies the efforts of those who read backward, deserves the applause of all who like mystery."--Town Topics, New York

"The tale is well told, and the intricacies of the plot so adroitly managed that it is impossible to foresee the correct solution of the mysterious case until the final act of the tragedy.... Although vividly told, the literary style is excellent and the story by no means sensational, a fact that raises it above the level of the old-time detective story,"--Brooklyn Daily Eagle

[Illustration: AS DARRELL DISMOUNTED, SHE CAME SWIFTLY TOWARDS HIM, EXTENDING HER HAND. Page 110]

AT THE TIME APPOINTED

BY

A. Maynard Barbour

AUTHOR OF "THAT MAINWARING AFFAIR," ETC.

WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY J. N. MARCHAND

"Yes, greater they who on life's battle-field, With unseen foes and fierce temptations fight" JOHN D. HIGINBOTHAM

GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers New York

Copyright, 1903 By J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Published April, 1903

Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

TO JOHN D. HIGINBOTHAM

"AS UNKNOWN, AND YET WELL KNOWN"

CONTENTS PAGE

Chapter I--John Darrell 9

" II--A Night's Work 25

" III--"The Pines" 32

" IV--Life? or Death? 43

" V--John Britton 48

" VI--Echoes from the Past 62

" VII--At the Mines 68

" VIII--"Until the Day Break" 81

" IX--Two Portraits 86

" X--The Communion of Two Souls 95

" XI--Impending Trouble 104

" XII--New Life in the Old Home 109

" XIII--Mr. Underwood "Strikes" First 123

" XIV--Drifting 134

" XV--The Awakening 146

" XVI--The Aftermath 166

" XVII--"She knows her Father's Will is Law" 180

" XVIII--On the "Divide" 194

" 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.