“Explain yourself,” urged Carol.
So while the others listened Gale let Phyllis tell of their morning’s adventure. Phyllis recreated vividly with words the suspense they had felt while fumbling around in the dark of the passages. The other girls were quite beside themselves with excitement when she had finished.
Armed with flashlights and the revolvers they always carried now Tom followed Jim and the special deputy into the cave when Gale and Phyllis had shown them the entrance.
The girls returned to the camp to await the return of the three and their prisoner. They had no doubts that if the bandit was still in the cave, the three men would find him and bring him back to face justice.
“But there might be another exit to the cave that you don’t know about,” Virginia mused to Phyllis and Gale. “Even now he might be miles away.”
“Well,” Phyllis said uncomfortably, remembering the thief’s laughter, “the farther he stays away from me, the better.”
“I hope nothing happens to Tom,” Virginia said with a worried frown for her brother. “If there is any danger, he is bound to rush right into it.”
“Don’t worry,” Gale consoled her, “Tom is old enough to take care of himself. While we are waiting, I’m going to have some target practice so I’ll know how to handle this revolver.”
“A good idea,” Phyllis declared jumping to her feet. “We’ll have a shooting match.”
Virginia tacked a large piece of paper to a tree and paced off twenty-five feet. From her mark Gale tried her luck at hitting their target. When she had finished they discovered that one of her six bullets had just nicked the edge of the paper. The others had gone clear past the tree. Phyllis was not even as lucky. None of her tries was successful.