"It's all right, Elmer," declared George.
"Are they going to do what we want?" asked the scout master, greatly pleased.
"Sure. And I reckon there he comes now. One of the men seems to be helping Nat down the path that runs along the face of the rock. Bully! We win out!"
A loud cheer from the scouts told how they were enjoying the situation.
Nat Scott waved his hand to them in greeting, for, having lost his hat at the shack, he was bareheaded.
The Italian was still a little suspicious, for he would come only two thirds of the way down. But Nat easily made the balance, and was soon shaking hands with everyone of his mates, just as though he had been separated from them for a week.
Leaving the woman to rejoin her people the scouts made their way down the side of the mountain until they reached the mill pond.
Nat's story was brief, and just about what Elmer had guessed. In prowling around he had unexpectedly come upon the three men.
They had seized upon him and threatened him with their knives if he so much as gave a yell. He had been kept for a short time in the shack. Then Landy's prowling around seemed to fill the Italians with a new alarm, and the three men, together with the woman, had hastily fled.
On the way up the mountain the woman had discovered the loss of something, and gone back.