“Did you tell them the secret of Blue Rock—I mean where the treasure chest went off the trail?” asked Ned.
“I did not!” was the emphatic rejoinder. “They kept pestering me all the while, and they threatened all sorts of things when we should get to the gully, which we were heading for, if I didn’t tell them. But I let them threaten.”
“Then we may get the gold yet!” said Bob.
“Tell us what happened,” suggested Jerry, when a fire had been lighted and Bob was getting supper, for night was falling.
“Well, they sneaked up on me and kidnaped me—that’s about all I can say,” Bill answered. “It was that day you were all away. I had come to the cabin to get some new drills for the mine when, the first I knew, I was knocked out by a blow on the head.”
“That’s what they did to Hang Gow,” commented Ned.
“Um,” murmured the miner. “So that accounts for that Chinaman not coming to help me. I wondered while they were taking me away what had happened to him.
“Well, as I said, they sneaked up and attacked me suddenly. When I got my senses back I was lying bound in the bottom of a wagon and riding along. And, believe me, it was some rough ride! They had a gag in my mouth so I couldn’t yell, and they had me tied tight.
“Well, they got me off to some wild place that night and said they’d let me go if I’d tell them exactly how to get to the spot where the treasure chest fell over. I knew then that this Dolt Haven was a bluffer—a faker. He doesn’t know anything about it. I knew I had all the cards in my hand, so I didn’t let out anything.
“That little professor came prancing up as though he were a six-footer trying to help me once; but the gang easily got rid of him—took him back into the forest, I guess.”