"I don't understand this at all," Mr. Buck interrupted.
"It's just this way," Will said, facing the speaker "we caught the three men who were wandering about in the mine. We rescued our chums first, and then when the outlaws heard your party advancing they scrambled up the old shaft, and took to their heels supposing, of course, that we had lost no time in getting out of the mine."
"And you geezled them all?" asked Sandy.
"The whole three!" replied Will. "All we had to do was to stretch a rope across a passage, trip them up, and do a little winding around their geezled forms before they could get their breath. They're all tied up good and tight now."
"And you searched them for the money and didn't find it?" shouted Carson.
"And we searched them for the money and didn't find it!" repeated Will.
"I don't believe it!" shouted Carson. "You'll be telling me in a moment, when I ask you to produce your robbers, that they have broken their bonds and escaped!"
At that moment, George's voice was heard calling down the shaft:
"Break for the main shaft!" they heard him saying. "Head those fellows off! They cut their ropes and got away!"
"I told you so!" thundered Carson.