CHAPTER X
BOYS IN A TIGHT PLACE
"Who's there?" asked Tommy's voice, as Will beat frantically against the rocky bulkhead against which he stood.
"How do I get in there?" asked Will.
"Go around to the entrance and shoot up this half-breed!" advised
Sandy. "He's got us cornered!"
"He's got me cornered, too!" shouted Will.
"Then I guess he's got the high hand," Tommy answered back.
"Say," Thede's voice exclaimed, "the rock at the end of that passage isn't more than a foot thick and it's full of cracks, at that. If you had a couple of big whinnicks, you could smash it down."
"I can find the whinnicks all right!" answered Will.
"Say!" cried Sandy, "you want to hurry with those whinnicks, for Pierre is almost standing on his head, threatening to shoot if you try to break through."
Will collected a number of heavy stones which had fallen from the walls and threw them with all his strength against the partition.
The cracks widened, and slivers of brittle rock fell away. His efforts were greeted with cheers from the other side, and he redoubled them, with the result that in a short time, a passage between the two sections of the underground chambers had been made.
When Will stepped through the opening he saw Pierre's fur cap sticking up above a barrier which reached almost to the ceiling. The long barrel of his rifle protruded threateningly into the room.
"I guess," Will proposed, "that we'd better get out of range of that gun. It doesn't look good to me."
The boys crowded back into the chamber which Will had recently left and looked at each other with inquiring eyes.
Pierre's harsh laugh came from the outer room. "You thieves!" he cried. "You die like bear in a trap."
"What does the old idiot mean by that?" asked Will.
"Search me!" replied Tommy.
"How did he ever get you in here?"
"That's a pretty question to ask of us!" declared Tommy. "How did he ever get you in here?"
"He came to camp and volunteered to help find you run-away boys," replied Will. "He brought me to the hills and tumbled boulders into the entrance to the cavern."
"Well, he came to our assistance almost as soon as we reached the hills in search of George," Tommy grinned. "He was so mighty careful to get us into safe quarters that he led us into this rotten hole and fixed it so we couldn't get out!"
"What's he doing it all for?" Will asked, turning to Tommy.
"Perhaps Thede Carson can tell you better than I can," replied
Tommy. "You remember Thede Carson, don't you, Will?"
"I seem to see a faint, resemblance in this lad to a boy I used to know as Thede Carson," Will laughed. "He looks now, though, as if he had plenty to eat, and a good place to sleep!"
"I have been eating regularly," grinned Thede, "but there's no knowing whether I'll ever connect with another bear steak."
"He came up here with Pierre," Sandy explained. "Perhaps he can tell you what the half-breed is up to."
"I don't know any more about it than you do!" replied Thede. "He didn't seem to like the idea of my associating with George," the boy added with a wink at Will, "and so he bunched us together and locked us up."
While Pierre gave vent to hoarse shouts of rage, and many entirely unnecessary and insulting taunts, the boys explained the events of the past night. The thing which startled Will most was the story Thede told about having caught sight of the Little Brass God.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Certain sure!"
"It wasn't the firelight or anything like that?"
"No, it was the Little Brass God!"
"Was it Pierre who sat before the fire?"
Thede shook his head doubtfully.
"I don't think so," he replied.
"Did you see the man's face?"
"Only in the shadows. His chin was on his breast at first, and then, when he looked up, he turned his head the other way."
"Well," Will said, "we have at least located the ugly little beast."
"Did it look complete and whole?" asked Tommy. "That's one question you didn't answer when you told me about having seen it."
"Just as good as new," replied Thede. "If it had been opened at all, the trick was turned by a man who understood the combination."
"And now about George?" Will asked.
"Some one carried him away," Thede declared.
"That's the way I figure it out," Tommy cut in.
"He didn't walk away," Tommy added, "because there were no tracks his size. There were plenty of other tracks, but none which could have been made by George's shoes."
"Aw, how do you know anything about that?" demanded Sandy. "We saw a large moccasin track there, and how do we know that some man didn't walk behind George and step on all his tracks?"
"Or how do we know that some big chump didn't carry him away in his arms?" Tommy admitted. "I never thought about the means that might have been used to conceal the kid's exit. You're the only real live Sherlock Holmes in this crowd," the boy added with a laugh.
"Then it's a cinch that some one carried him away," Will decided.
"Of course it is!" Sandy answered.
"Look here!" Tommy said after a moment's reflection. "Don't you boys remember how mussy that cavern looked. We were all so anxious to chase out and find George that we didn't pay much attention to the room, but I begin to remember now that it looked as if some one had shot wild game there and cooked meat over the fire."
"I remember something about that now!" Thede said.
"And there was more blood on the floor than ever came from the little wound George received, according to the way you describe it," Tommy went on.
"And I'll bet if we'd hunted around the cavern, we'd have found bear steak and refuse hidden in some of those odd little nooks."
"I guess that's right," Thede declared.
"Now, about those moccasin tracks?" asked Will.
"Let's go out and follow 'em up!" grinned Sandy.
"Sure!" replied Tommy. "Just bite your way through these rocks and go out and follow 'em up."
"It's only a question of time when we'll get out," Will insisted.
"That crazy half-breed can't keep us in here forever!"
"If he keeps us in much longer," Tommy declared, rubbing the waistband of his trousers affectionately, "he'll have me starved plumb to death!"
"Me, too!" Sandy cut in. "I'm shy a breakfast myself!"
"And I'm so hungry that I could eat snowballs!" Thede said, with a grin. "I don't think I ever was so hungry!"
"Why don't you go outside and take a shot at that half-breed?"
Tommy asked, looking reproachfully at Will.
"Did he get your guns away from you?" asked the boy.
"You bet he did!" replied Tommy.
"How did he do it?"
"He asked us to lay them aside while we crawled through a crack in the rock, and then grabbed them. Oh, he's a foxy old fellow, that!"
"Well, we can't get out if we stand here talking all day," Sandy ventured. "The longer we stay, the hungrier we'll get!"
"What I'd like to know," Will suggested, "is this: Why did he do it? What spite has he against us?"
"If you leave it to me," Thede replied, "the Little Brass God has something to do with it! I don't know whether Pierre has possession of the ugly little beast, or whether he is trying to get possession of it, but I believe he has a notion that we're trying to get bold of it."
"Well, that's a good guess," grinned Tommy.
During all this conversation the voice of the half-breed had been frequently heard, alternately cursing and coaxing the lads to enter the outer chamber where he could talk with them.
"What do you want?" Will asked finally.
"Come here!" was the answer.
Tommy stepped half-way through the opening and flashed his searchlight into the apartment beyond.
"That is better!" shouted Pierre,
"So that's what you want?" demanded Tommy. "You want light to shoot us by!"
"Send the other boy out!" demanded the half-breed. "Send out the one I brought here!"
"He wants you, Will," Tommy said.
As the boy was about to step into the opening, Thede caught him by the arm and drew him back.
"Just you wait a minute," he said.
The lad placed a sliver of rock in Will's hat and held it beyond the opening, at the same time letting the rays of the searchlight fall full upon it.
"I know that half-breed better than you do," Thede said, as he pushed the hat out further and further.
When the hat was about as far out as the boy could send it without risking his own hands, a rifle shot rang through the cavern and the bullet cut its way through the exposed hat.
"Don't you see?" Thede asked. "He knows you have a gun, and he figured that you'd fall into this chamber, and that we wouldn't dare reach over for it. He's a foxy old reprobate!"
"What next?" demanded Will.
"You just wait a minute!" Thede advised. "I think I know a way out! If we just could get in behind that half-breed and chuck him into the prison he prepared for us, it would be a mighty fine joke on him!"