"Bring 'em back to the mine first," said the fellow in the fur coat. "I guess the boss will want to see these birds."
Frank and Joe were roughly bundled up the hillside again by their captors. All the time Frank's mind was in a whirl. Who were these three men? Why had they attacked them? Why had they been hunting for them in the first place? And who was "the boss" they spoke of?
In due time they reached the shaft-head again and there the man in the fur coat faced them.
"Who are you two boys?" he demanded.
"Who are you?" countered Frank.
"That doesn't matter. What's your names?"
"Tell us yours first."
"What were you doing in that mine?"
"What did you attack us for? Why are you keeping us here?"
The man in the fur coat became impatient at receiving questions instead of answers.