"Did you build these fires so we could cook supper?"
"You"re not hungry, I hope!" grinned Tommy.
"Starved to death!" answered Sandy. "We"ve been treed by bears, and dumped down on the back of a great beast about nine feet long, and had our fish devoured, and there"s been nothing doing in the eating line since noon!"
"Never you mind the hardships of life!" grinned Will. "We"ve got great news for you, so get ready to shout!"
"What"s the great news?" demanded Sandy.
"We"ve got the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d penned up in the cavern just under this rock! We"ve got a cinch on him this time!"
CHAPTER XX
A SIGHT OF THE G.o.d
"All quiet at the cabin?" asked Tommy.
"All quiet when we left," Sandy replied.
"What time did you leave?" demanded Tommy, suspiciously.
"Shortly after dinner."
"And you"ve gone and left George alone all this time!" exclaimed Tommy indignantly. "You"re a bright lot!"
"We thought you boys would be back to the cabin long before this!"
Sandy declared. "But what is it about this Little Bra.s.s G.o.d?"
"When we reached the system of caverns which we visited not long ago, and in which we were held prisoners for a short time," Will said, "we found two men, well bundled up in furs, lying asleep, or apparently asleep, in one of the smaller rooms. They sprang up when they saw us and seemed about to engage in conversation with us when Antoine made his appearance. Antoine seemed to want to talk with us, too, but when he saw the two men who had been asleep in the cavern he hot-footed down the slope, with the two fellows after him. I never saw a man run so fast in my life."
"I bet they chased him clear to our tree!" Thede cut in.
"I guess he never stopped running until be got there anyway!" Sandy grinned. "But why should he come right back here after being chased away?"
"I don"t think he did!" "Will replied.
"Oje saw him out here not long ago!" Sandy insisted.
"What was he doing?"
"I presume he was watching the fire."
"The two men who pursued him are back, too!" Will continued.
"Tommy and I found them in a cute little nest in the rocks not more than an hour ago. Just before we built these fires, in fact."
"I suppose you built the fires to lure us from the cabin!" laughed Sandy. "Well, we wasn"t at the cabin, but we saw the signals just the same!"
"We wanted you to come and help capture the men who have the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d," Will answered.
"So you"ve got the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d penned up under the hill!"
laughed Sandy. "You"ve got it, and yet you haven"t got it!"
"I never said we had it!" Will replied. "I said we had it penned up under the hill. You didn"t give me time to explain that there were two men penned up with it."
"All right!" Sandy said. "You"ve come to the right shop for fighting men. I can see those two fellows fading away at my approach!"
"Then you go in ahead," advised Tommy. "They seem to be well armed and may shoot, if you don"t scare them into fits with one of your fierce glances! They"re bold, bad men!"
"How do you know they haven"t disappeared while you"ve been making signals?" asked Sandy. "They"ve had time enough to be five miles away!"
"We nailed "em in with a couple of boulders!" grinned Tommy.
"You followed Pierre"s example, did you?"
"Yes, we just blocked "em in."
"Well, I think we"d better be getting them out, then!" Sandy urged.
"And also be moving toward the cabin. George"ll think we"ve got killed or something."
"Come on, then," Will exclaimed. "I"ll show you where they are!"
The boy led the way down the slope for some distance and then paused at a boulder which blocked the entrance to what seemed to be a cavern of good size. They listened for a moment, but could hear no sounds coming from the interior.
"How"re you going to get them out?" asked Thede.
"We ain"t going to get "em out!" replied Will. "What do you think we brought you boys here for? We know they can"t get out, so we"re just going to sit down here and wait for them to get good and hungry."
"All right!" Sandy answered. "Two can watch and two can go back to the cabin! George will be good and anxious by this time."
"I was thinking of asking Oje to watch a short time," Will said.
"It"s a good thing the Indian came along with you."
Oje was called down to the barricaded entrance and the situation briefly explained to him. The Indian stepped close to the boulder and listened for a long time for sounds from the inside.
Then he turned to, the boys and shook his head gravely.
"Don"t you ever tell me they"ve gone and got away!" exclaimed Tommy. "Why, they couldn"t get away unless they walked through forty feet of solid rock! And they couldn"t do that!"
"I"m going to find out!" declared Will.
The lads pried the boulder away, blocking it so that it could not crash down the slope and so warn the men inside of the approach of the boys. Then Will crept cautiously into the dark pa.s.sage.
The others were at his heels in a moment. On the previous visit of Will and Tommy, there had been the light of a torch in the cavern, but there was no illumination of any kind now.
"I guess they"ve gone, all right!" Tommy, whispered.