r situation.

Cap Roche was the first to realize what had happened.

"Shut up!" he commanded. "He played a joke on you, that's all. Serves
you right for fooling with him. That is the greatest Chinaman I ever
saw."

The victim went for water to cool his burning hand.

"Allee light; me go now," called out Hop, who had been, watching from
the front of the cave. "Me soonee come back with um money to pay um
toll, so be."

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. "Come 'way petty
quicken."

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:

"Well, that beats anything yet! So ther galoots wants us ter pay money,
eh? Well, I reckon not! We'll jest git Wild an' ther two gals away from
'em without pain' a thing. Hop, you take my horse an' ride over to ther
camp as fast as yer kin. Jest git ther miners together an' tell 'em
what's up. Then yer kin git some of ther counterfeit money you've got
hid around somewhere an' come back an' take it ter Roche. While you're
talkin' to 'em we'll all creep in an' fix ther galoots fur good an'
all!"

"Allee light, Misler Charlie."

Hop was not long in mounting the scout's horse, and then he rode swiftly
to Big Bonanza.

He went to the camp first and, telling Wing enough to make him
frightened about it, he got a roll of counterfeit money from his
saddlebags.

This he stuffed in his pocket, and then he rode to the saloon.

"Misler Hoker," he said; "me wanted allee samee lot of mans to go and
fight um outla