Ned sprang to his feet and looked keenly about but at first saw no cause for alarm. What he did see in a moment, however, brought a flush of anger to his face. The place where Toombs had lain was unoccupied! In some mysterious manner, the fellow had made his escape while the boys slept!
“The Indians did it!” insisted Gilroy, his teeth chattering with fright. “I saw an Indian creep up and cut the ropes. I was so frozen of terror that I couldn’t stop him. An awful, painted savage! He threatened me with a knife when I managed to look in his direction.”
While Gilroy was making this explanation, Jimmie sprang to his feet and darted swiftly out of the cave. Ned called to him to return, but he paid no attention. In a moment the boy was out of sight.
CHAPTER XXI
THE END OF A CROOKED ROAD
Leaving the boys in wild commotion at the camp, Jimmie followed swiftly on in the direction which he believed Toombs to have taken.
“I just can’t let that geezer get away!” the boy muttered as he traveled over the rough ground at great speed.
After half an hour’s steady walking he came to an elevation from which he saw two figures moving away to the north. One of the men seemed to him to be Toombs, while the other might well be classed as an Indian. They were moving at a good pace, although the Indian was frequently obliged to assist his companion over rocky crags.
The two seemed entirely unconscious of pursuit. Indeed, as it was afterwards learned, they were beyond the sound of Gilroy’s voice when he shouted out the alarm which had awakened the boys. The fat clerk had been so frightened that he had made no attempt to sound an alarm until the Indian he feared was too far away to inflict injury upon him!
And so, believing that the boys still slept in the camp, and that the escape of their prisoner still remained undiscovered, the two made their way, not to the old camp near the mission, but toward the sheltered bit of ground which enclosed the Devil’s Punch Bowl.
“Now, I wonder why they are going there!” mused Jimmie, gaining upon the two fugitives every moment. “If that fellow who cut Toombs out of our camp,” he went on, “should prove to be a Hoola Indian, fully advised as to the deposit of gold, he might give Toombs information calculated to make us a lot of trouble.”