these scoundrels have been living in
the open air. And they must have some place for concealing their booty."

"Quite right, Overton. Corporal Cotter, take Overton, Terry and two
other men and make a thorough search of the rocks and ground
hereabouts."

Hal turned swiftly to the man in whose eyes he had seen that gleam of
satisfaction the moment before. Now the fellow was scowling.

"That was a hit," Hal murmured to himself. "The rascals have some hiding
place around here."

"Now we'll divide the ground up in small squares," announced Corporal
Cotter as he led his picked men away. "We'll search each square
minutely, so that no little patch may be overlooked."

"Won't it be best, Corporal," hinted Hal, "to start where the thieves
were when the fighting began?"

"Just the ticket, Overton," nodded the corporal.

So the search began at that point. Nor did it last long, for Hal,
thrusting with the butt of his rifle, poked a large bush partly aside
exclaiming:

"I guess you'd better come here, Corporal," the recruit called.

As Cotter came running to the spot Private Overton displayed a hole
rising some three feet above the grounds. It had been covered by the
foliage of the bush.

"Looks like the mouth of a cave, doesn't it?" Hal asked, with gleaming
eyes.

"A whole lot," agreed Corporal Cotter, producing a pocket electric
flashlight. "You can follow me in, Overton, if you like."

Corporal and private crawled into the hole. They did not have to go more
than six feet before they stood in a stone-walled chamber of
considerable size. Roughly, it appeared to be an apartment of about
twenty by thirty-five feet.

"Beds, tables, chairs, lamps, grub," enumerated Corporal Cotter,
looking about him gleefully. "Take the lamp, Overton. I'm going back to
call the captain."

Less than two minutes later Captain Cortland stood in the rockbound
chamber.

"Well, this is a place!" whistled the officer in surprise.

"This chest is locked, sir," reported Hal, who had been improving his
time by looking about. "Do you think it may contain loot. Captain?"

"There's an ax," nodded Cortland, glancing around him. "Corporal, just
try the ax on the chest--carefully."

With a few blows Cotter had the chest open. Captain Cortland knelt by
the wooden chest to inspect.

"This is clothing on top," he announced. "But--ah, what does this look
like?"

In the middle of the chest's contents he had come upon carefully wrapped
packages of