"I do not."
"Ye're rather hard on a chap wot is trying ter do ye a good turn."
"It remains to be seen if it is a good turn or not, Slavin. You may be putting up a job on us."
"No, I swear it's all right, Winthrop. Ye'll find everything jest as I told ye."
"Perhaps. But you go back to the fire," and Slavin went back, but with a look on his face that rivaled the black clouds in the heavens outside.
Soon the prisoner was curled up close to the fire and he closed his eyes as if in slumber, but he kept as wide awake as before.
While Allen and Watson were talking at the entrance to the cavern, Noel, out of idle curiosity, procured a torch from the camp fire and went on a tour of observation.
The cavern proved to be a narrow and rambling affair, being nothing more or less than a split in the mountain side. The floor was uneven and back from the entrance arose in a series of rough steps.
Up these steps climbed the young man until he had gained a position fully fifty feet above the mouth of the cavern.
At a great distance he heard the falling of water, as the rain swept over some rocks at a rear entrance to the cavern.