e here fur ther purpose of findin' us out. Yer all heard what
ther boy said as we come away, I reckon?"

"I sartinly did, fur one," answered the man nearest him.

"He said if we happened ter run across any outlaws in Furbidden Pass we
should tell 'em that Young Wild West is lookin' fur 'um," the other
added, quickly.

"That's jest what he said!" exclaimed Snivel. "Now, then, what does that
mean?"

"It means that he's after us," said the second, shaking his head and
shrugging his shoulders.

"It looks that way," the third villain admitted.

"Well, yer kin bet your life we'll tell ther outlaws, won't we?"

"We sartinly will."

"Come on, then! Let's git to ther cave."

They set their bronchos at a gallop and moved rapidly through the pass.

"I wonder if ther sign was all right?" said one, as they rode along. "I
was thinkin' so much about what that boy said that I never thought ter
look."

"It was all right," replied Snivel; "I looked at it. Ther sign that Cap
Roche made on a barrel-head is there. Yer kin bet that it'll stay there,
too. Young Wild West might take a notion ter knock it down; but if he
does we'll see to it that it's put up ag'in, or another jest like it."

When they had covered about a mile they slowed down a little and began
to look behind them very often.

The fact was that they were nearing the hidden headquarters of the
outlaw band of Forbidden Pass.

The pass itself was just about two miles in length, the entrance being
less than a quarter of a mile from the cluster of shanties that made up
the mining camp of Big Bonanza.

At the other end the regular trail to Silver Bend would be reached, and
by taking the cut through the short pass just about fifteen miles could
be saved on a journey to Silver Bend.

But, as John Sedgwick had told Young Wild West, the miners no longer
took the short cut, since so many holdups had occurred in the pass.

The clever man who captained and ran the gang of villains was now trying
to make the traffic be resumed through the pass, and, as has been said,
Chuck Snivel and two others were sent over to the little mining camp to
make the miners believe that there was no longer any danger to travel
that way.

There was no doubt but that they had succeeded pretty well, too, since
they were now certain that Young Wild West was coming through that way.

The boy had said enough to convince them of that.

It was a little more than half way through the pass that ti