“If you boys break camp and leave the mountains at once,” Gilroy advised, “the agents of the corporation will not hold Nestor for any great length of time. Nestor, as you boys well know, has an international reputation for clever work in the detective line. Still, it is well known, that he works with Boy Scouts invariably, and the people who have abducted him will understand that he would be likely to abandon any case not shared with his old chums. Am I right in that?”
“You’ve got it sized up right!” declared Jimmie.
“I wonder why they didn’t trap me?” Jack asked.
“I rather wonder at that, too,” Gilroy answered.
“Huh,” laughed Frank. “They wanted the detective, and not the son of his father. To capture Jack would be to admit that their efforts were directed against the corporations under the control of Mr. Bosworth.”
“Well,” the confidential clerk insisted, “I am certain that, under the circumstances, Mr. Bosworth would object to your remaining here on any errand of his. For my own part, I advise you to get out of the mountains as soon as possible.”
“And miss all this fun?” demanded Jimmie with a grin.
“But I insist that you boys are in deadly peril here!” Gilroy went on. “Urged on by the agents of this hostile corporation, there is no knowing what desperate measures these outlaw claimants may resort to. But if you insist on remaining here against my advice, and against the advice your father would give if he understood the circumstances, you ought to move your camp to some place not in the knowledge of the outlaws. You can at least do that.”
“What’s the use?” asked Jack. “Don’t you suppose they’ve got people watching us now? From this time on, we can’t make a move without their knowing it. We may as well stay here and barricade this cave.”
“That’s a good idea!” Jimmie exclaimed. “All we’ve got to do is to roll a few large boulders down the slope and line them up at the entrance of the cavern. We’ll be as snug as bugs in a rug in behind them, and we have provisions enough to last us for a month.”