"Guard the track at the summit. Let no train pass, even if you have to tear up the track."
"By whose order?"
The mountebank made a mysterious sign with his left hand.
"Bueno!" from the horseman. "Close up the doors and care for the wounded," and putting spurs to his horse, he led the bandits from the basin.
As soon as they were out of sight, the mountebank summoned the boys to the shaft house by a wave of his hand.
"Now," he said, "you'll have a chance to test your nerve, and we must work rapidly to get where we wish to go before dark."
He took from a crude knapsack which he wore upon his shoulders a coil of cord about half the size of a lead pencil, but evidently of much strength. Then seizing the ape, he fastened one end of the cord to the belt about the animal's body, and despite its unwillingness to be thus treated began to lower it into the shaft.
Totally unable to account for his actions, the boys stood speechless, watching the operations.
After some minutes, the cord slackened.
"He's reached the bottom," was the information vouchsafed. Then a moment later: "Help me to pull him up, one of you."