surrounding his man. He motioned to Jesse and the Aleut boy
to remain at the rim of the canyon, and, sending John to a point below,
he himself climbed down on the upper side of the fire. When he reached a
point where he could see into the mouth of the cave and realized that
very probably this was the abode of the escaped Aleut, he waited until
he saw John in position below, and then as they both covered the mouth
of the cave with their guns he gave a loud call:

"Here, you, Jimmy, come out of that!"

They all heard a low exclamation, which assured them that their man was
at home; but at first he refused to appear. Rob called out loudly again,
half raising himself above a rock behind which he had taken shelter
against any surprise.

Presently they heard a voice raised, not in defiance, but in entreaty.
They scarcely recognized the figure which limped to the mouth of the
cave, so gaunt and haggard did it seem. It was, indeed, their late
prisoner, but now bent and weak, as though ill and half starved. He held
his bow and arrows in one hand over his head, but the bow was not
strung. Evidently he intended to surrender without any resistance.

"Good mans, good!" he repeated, beating on his breast.

They closed in on him now and took away his weapons. The Aleut boy
jabbered at him in excited tones, apparently accusing or reproaching
him. Jimmy edged away from him and looked at the white faces of the
others, which regarded him sternly but with no apparent anger. He sadly
pointed to his leg, which had been injured by a fall on the rocks.
Evidently he wanted to tell them that if they would take him back on the
old footing he, for his part, would be glad enough to come, if only they
would keep the savage brown boy away from him.

"Now we've got him," said Rob, at last, "and what shall we do with him?"

"We'll have to take him down," said John. "He'd just about die if we
left him up here; and I don't believe he'll make us trouble any more.
Besides, we've got Skookie here to watch him now."

Rob debated the matter in his mind for some time, but finally agreed
that Jimmy would probably make them no more trouble, since he very
possibly was hiding out more in fear of them than in any wish to harm
them. Reasoning that one or both of these natives might be useful in
later plans, he at last held out his hand to Jimmy, and with some effort
persuaded Skookie that it would be better for him to shake hands with
Jimmy than to take a r