A signal from Ned caused the other four scouts to take particular notice of what they were coming to. It was certainly a black opening among the rocks, with all the signs of a mine before it, even to some discarded picks and shovels lying in confusion close by.
They could just see the tent colony below. Some of the boys were anxious to get inside that opening, so as to find out what its secret might be; Ned, however, did not wholly like the looks of things.
"I wish I knew where those three men had gone," he muttered so that Jack heard, and looked at him inquiringly.
"Why, what's gone wrong now?" he inquired.
"Those men we tracked here have disappeared since we started to pass around the camp," said the other. "I've been looking to get a glimpse of them, and so far without any success."
"H'm! so much the better," whispered Jimmy, who was, of course, hovering near, anxious to know everything that was going on. "I must say I didn't like their looks, and particularly old Blackbeard. He had an iron jaw and a scowl that would send a cold chill to your heart. Oh! if they've gone away, let's laugh in our sleeves. I'd call it a good riddance of very bad rubbish."
"And so far as I'm concerned," added Frank, "I wouldn't drop a single tear if the whole shooting match of rascals dropped into Hudson Bay, and couldn't swim a stroke."
"What's to pay, Ned?" persisted Jack, who knew that the other would not feel the way he did without some good cause.
"It's only this," continued the leader of the explorers, "we're bound to enter the mine, now that we've come so many hundred miles, just to find out the truth. Well, if those men are in there working, we stand a chance of running across the lot, and that would spell trouble, you know."
"For them, yes," remarked Jimmy, as he fondled the repeating rifle he was carrying so proudly.