“There!” Jimmie exclaimed triumphantly. “What do you make of that?”
“Perhaps the boys have returned,” suggested Ned. “Perhaps they are calling to us now not to wander off in search of them. Suppose we wait here a minute and see?”
“That ain’t any of our boys putting up a roar like that!” Jimmie insisted. “I’ll bet a dollar it’s that fat old confidential clerk. Say, Ned!” he went on, “that fellow has got more screech in him than any full-grown man I ever saw. Do you mind how he cut the air with his agony when the bear had him up the tree?”
“It certainly is Gilroy!” Ned exclaimed impatiently. “Now, what do you suppose sent him up here after us?”
“He probably found himself alone,” suggested Jimmie, “and wandering out, saw our light. I remember of flashing one when we passed around that big boulder.”
“He’s coming on like an insane man!” said Ned angrily. “If there’s an enemy within ten miles of us, he will have no difficulty in locating us after this. I wish I could stop him.”
Ned did not in the least overstate the case when he said that Gilroy was coming on like an insane person. After finding himself alone in the cave, the fat clerk had seized a searchlight and dashed out in quest of the boys. As Jimmie had suggested, he had seen a flash of light up the slope and followed on.
As he advanced now, puffing so that his approach might be heard many rods away, he swung the light frantically in the air and called out at the top of his voice. With an exclamation of impatience, Ned turned on his own light and ran toward him.
“Keep still!” he shouted as soon as the voice of the clerk gave him an opportunity to cut in. “Keep still, I tell you! You’ll have every robber and murderer in the mountain down on us!”
“And now it’s robbers and murderers, is it?” shrieked the clerk. “It was bears and panthers down in the cave. I saw a bear sneaking up to the provision box just as I left. He seemed to want to eat me!”