“Well, I hope so,” the factor declared earnestly. “My old bones won’t stand much excitement. I’m not the tough customer I used to be when I was your age.”
All three went on, a little more confident that no danger lay ahead. Dick alone, had his suspicions of what lay before them, and he was about to advise the factor to walk between him and Sandy, when of a sudden, there sounded the fall of a body directly behind them. There came a grunting shout and Sandy’s candle was knocked from his hand, and the cavern plunged in darkness.
“Hey!” Dick whirled, his gun clubbed. The sound of scuffling was heard, and blindly he plunged back.
“Here he is,” Sandy’s muffled shout directed him. “He’s got Uncle Walter down, trying to take the map away from him.”
Sandy’s voice died away with a sudden umph! Dick’s rearward leap was stopped by a heavy body. The shock almost knocked the breath out of him, but he clung on to the person he had collided with, feeling that it was neither Sandy nor the factor.
“Here, here! I’ve got him!” cried Dick, panting. Then he was overpowered and thrown heavily down. The sound of retreating footsteps sounded along the cavern in the darkness. Sandy’s candle flared up under a match.
“Are you all right, Dick?” was Sandy’s question.
Dick picked himself up and replied that he was. “Quick, find out if he got the map from your uncle!”
Factor MacClaren himself replied: “Luckily he didn’t, though he thinks he did. He got an old letter out of my inside breast pocket. The map is safe. Wonder who it was?”
“It must have been the scar-faced Indian,” Dick guessed the identity of their unknown assailant. “Say, he didn’t work slow, did he?”