Cautiously they crept up the path and peered in at the window of the deserted hut. A strange scene met their eyes.
In one corner of the bare room a rugged man with a grizzled beard was tied hand and foot, while another man with a red-hot poker seemed about to burn his eyes out. His cries for help were pitiful.
His captors, however—for beside the man with the poker there were two other men in the room—seemed to have no pity for him. The man with the poker was exclaiming in a fierce voice:
“Sign the title to the mine or we will kill you,” as the boys peeked cautiously into the room, which was lighted by a lamp detached from the auto. On the tumble-down hearth the fire in which the poker had been heated smouldered.
The man with the poker had his back to the boys, but even about that there seemed something strangely familiar. The appealing words next uttered by the bound man soon apprised them with whom they had to deal.
“I will never do so, Luther Barr,” declared the victim in a trembling voice.
The boys all started with amazement at encountering their old enemy in such a surprising manner in this out-of-the-way hut at midnight.
“Your attempts to get the papers from me are of no use. Kill me if you must, but don’t torture me.”
“So you won’t tell where they are,” cried Barr angrily.
“I will not,” said his victim firmly.