assistance outside the Dutchman's farm. Half mad with dread and terror
the woman sat there listening. She did not dare to go outside now; she
knew how futile such an act would be. Also, she knew quite well what was
going to happen in the morning. She sat up half the night in a state
bordering on madness. I need not insult your intelligence, my dear
fellow, by asking you to guess what she found on the doorstep in the
daylight."

"Of course, I can guess," Gurdon said. "Beyond all question, it was the
third finger of the Dutchman's hand."

"Quite so," Venner resumed. "I need not over elaborate my story or bore
you by telling how, six months later, the second finger of the hand
appeared in the same sensational circumstances, and how, at the end of a
year, the four fingers were complete. Let me once more impress upon you
the fact that this mine was called the Four Finger Mine for more than a
century before these strange things happened."

"It is certainly an extraordinary thing," Gurdon muttered. "I don't think
I ever listened to a weirder tale. And did the Dutch woman confess to
her crime? This strikes me as being a fitting end to the story. I suppose
it came from her lips."

"She didn't confess, for the simple reason that she had no mind to
confess with," Venner explained. "Of course, certain neighbors knew
something of what was going on, but they never knew the whole truth,
because, after the appearance of the last finger, Mrs. Van Fort went
stark raving mad. She lived for a few days, and at the end of that time
her body was found in a waterfall close to her house. That is the story
of the Four Finger Mine so far as it goes, though I should not be