"We'll find a way out; or, rather, a way off," said Frank, after a bit. "It's queer that this should happen, and, I suppose, if we hadn't been so busy getting out the gold, and stayed in the cave, we would have noticed the water rising, and we could have gotten away in time."
"That's right," agreed Billy. "There's been some mistake, I'm sure. Uncle Richfield must have thought we had left the Peak, and closed the gates. You know we did stay here longer than we said we would."
"Yes, but he was not to close the dam until he got word from us," declared Frank "And we didn't send any word. How——"
"No, but someone must have!" cried Billy, now much excited. "I begin to see it now. Those fellows—Shackmiller's gang—they knew we were here. Probably they've been spying on us all the while, though we could see no trace of them. They could not find the treasure themselves, and they decided to leave, for they must have realized that the game was up. Then they had it in for us, and hit on this revenge. They sent word to Uncle Richfield that we had left, as we said we would, and he closed the gate."
"But how could they have known we were going to send any word?" asked Andy.
"We talked of it at the dam, where all the men were working," went on Billy; "and unless I'm mistaken Shackmiller must have had a spy or two among the construction men. It would have been easy enough to do that."
"But would your uncle accept word that we had left from someone he did not know?" asked Frank.
"Probably the man, whoever he was, never saw my uncle at all," explained Billy. "He may have just ridden up to the dam and called to the foreman that we were off Golden Peak, and that the water could be backed up. We didn't say we would send word by any special messenger, you know."
"That's right," agreed Andy. "It could have been done that way. Well, we're in for it now, all right. What a lot of water!"
It was indeed a large lake that they were gazing over, and it was constantly growing larger. The river, augmented by the cloudburst, and by the continued heavy rains, had swollen greatly in size, and, in consequence, the water backed up much more rapidly than would otherwise have been the case.