Liu was still watching at the mouth of the cavern, so the boys talked freely, with little fear of being disturbed. Ned told of his return to the camp, and of the all-night hunt for the missing boy. It took Ned and Frank a long time to find the opening the former had seen in his swift drop down the cañon, but about daylight it was located.
They had, however, found many Chinamen loitering about, and Frank had gone back to camp to reassure the others, while Ned remained on the eastern side on the chance of getting into communication with Jimmie. While loitering about Liu had come up the slope.
It was quite a long story, that of his getting a perfect understanding with Liu, and Ned cut it as short as possible, merely saying that Liu had recognized his name, having heard his associates mention it frequently. Then the Chinese boy had procured the disguise and Ned had stuffed out the shoulders of the coat to give it a better fit.
“I was observed by a half a dozen men, some Americans, some Chinamen, while getting in here,” Ned said, then, “but the disguise misled them. Now, the question is this: How are we going to get out?”
“We’ll have to fight our way out?” asked Jimmie.
“It won’t answer,” Ned replied. “They are too many for us.”
Liu now came into the second cave and held up his hand for silence.
“You’ll have to hide in the back chamber,” he said. “Chang is coming in.”
“I thought this was the back chamber,” Jimmie said.
“I suspect,” Liu said, “that there’s a chain of caves running through the divide. Come on!”