Out he went, and he had not gone more than a dozen yards when he came upon the scout.
"Where's Anna an' Eloise?" Charlie demanded.
"Outlaws allee samee gottee," was the reply. "Comee 'way pletty quickee."
He almost pulled him around the bend, and then he found Jim and Arietta there.
The three had been watching from the top of the cliff, and when they saw the outlaws take Wild in they did not wait very long there, but came back to the pass.
It was their intention to take up a couple of lariats and try and devise a means of getting Wild away from the villains, but when they found that the girls and the Chinaman were not there, while the horses were just as they had left them, they did not know what to make of it.
It was while the scout was creeping up to the cave, thinking that the outlaws might have caught those they had left in the pass, that he saw Hop come out.
It was surely a morning of surprises, and Charlie was badly puzzled.
But when Hop told of the errand he has been sent on he was completely silenced for the time being.
When he found the use of his tongue he exclaimed: