"Forward, march!" he ordered.
Reluctantly, the outlaw strode ahead, following Joe, who was silhouetted against the circle of light cast by the flash.
"My men will see that you pay up for this!" he growled savagely.
"Your men will be scattered so far you'll never be able to find them when they hear you've been taken in," replied Frank. "If they don't, they'll land in jail with you. How did you happen to be down in the mine without them? Trying to make away with the gold in the storm?"
The shot told. Black Pepper looked around sharply.
"I wasn't trying to double-cross them!" he shouted. "Don't tell them that! Don't say you found me down here. None of us was supposed to go in here alone."
Frank chuckled.
"So that was your game, was it? You thought you'd sneak down here and grab the gold, then make your escape under cover of the blizzard. If we hadn't got here first, you would have done it, too. Your men will be liable to take revenge on us after that, won't they? Why, they'll want to see you hanged!"
Black Pepper was silent. His bluff had failed, and he knew it. He knew that when the other outlaws heard he had been captured in the blue room they would realize that he had been trying to steal a march on them and make away with the gold without their knowledge.
Joe led the way down the passage into the next chamber, and from there they proceeded out into the main shaft.