"You steal my boy!" he said.
"So this is a trap, is it?" Will demanded.
The half-breed answered by a chuckle of laughter."
"If you don't take those stones away," Will threatened, "I'll fill you full of lead when I do get out!"
The half-breed patted his gun stock significantly, but made no reply.
The boy heard him rolling rocks along the cavern floor and against the opening, and turned away hoping to find some other means of egress.
It was clear to him that the half-breed thoroughly understood the situation in the hills. He had no doubt that he had planned to bring him there for the purpose which had developed. He understood, too, that if there were other openings to the cavern, Pierre knew where they were, and would block them as soon as he had effectually blocked the one by which entrance had been effected.
It was cold and damp in that underground place, but the perspiration actually broke out on the boy's brow as he considered the fate which might await him in that dreary place of detention.
He had, of course, no means of knowing the whereabouts of any of his chums. In fact, it seemed to him possible that they, too, had been inveigled into a trap similar to the one which had been set for himself.
The motive for this brutal action on the part of the half-breed was, of course, entirely unknown to the boy. It will be remembered that he knew nothing whatever of Thede's suspicions that Pierre actually had the Little Brass God in his possession.