"How so?" asked Billie.
"Why, they will doubtless send out two or three to do the recruiting. We can capture them as they leave the ruins."
Billie glanced at the man from under his broad-rimmed sombrero as he asked: "How did you know they came out through the ruins?"
The mountebank smiled.
"Now, don't go to mistrusting me, young fellow, for I'm on the level. But I've been in this place before, and I know that the only way to where your friends down there are camping is through the ruins."
"Have you ever been down there?"
"Yes. They are only about sixty feet below the ground, in a chamber which was originally a gallery in the mine. The shaft over which this house is built is over two hundred feet deep."
"I'd like to explore it," remarked Adrian.
"Do you think you have the nerve?" and the stranger bent upon him a penetrating gaze.
Billie laughed softly.