“You boys had nerve to go through that second dark tunnel, not knowing what you might find,” said Uncle Tod admiringly.
“Nothing happened to amount to anything,” said Rick.
“No, but think of what might have happened!” exclaimed Sam. “You might both have fallen down some hole—yes, and Ruddy, too, and we’d never know what had become of you.”
“But it didn’t happen!” laughed Rick.
“Now about these men in the camp you speak of,” went on Uncle Tod. “Who were they?”
“We don’t know,” answered Rick. “Never saw any of ’em before. We couldn’t get close enough to hear what they said, or any names they used, but they looked like miners.”
“Must be the Lawson gang,” said Sam to Uncle Tod.
“I reckon,” was the answer. “It would be like them to try a game of this sort.”
“The Lawson gang’ll do anything!” Sam asserted.
“But I haven’t heard of them being round this valley in a long time,” said Uncle Tod, who had lived in this part of the west many years before going east to develop his salt land.