s you below here a while ago, shoutin'?" asked Ike Furner, without
answering the last question.

"Yes."

"Well, he went off to meet you."

"To meet us!" exclaimed Dick. "Which way did he go?"

"Same way you came."

"But we didn't meet him," cried Sam and Dick, in a breath.

"I dunno nuthin' about that, stranger. When my partner heard you
a-callin' an' heard that queer whistle you gave he got all excited, an'
said he must see who it was. I told him he'd better wait till you came
along, but he wouldn't do it--said he couldn't--that he had remembered
somethin' an' he was afraid he was goin' to forgit it ag'in."

"Poor Tom! That whistle must have made him remember who he was!" said
Sam. He turned to his brother. "Where can he be now? Oh, Dick, do
you remember that strange noise----"

"Yes! yes! If he had a tumble----" Dick could not finish.

"We'd better search into this," came promptly from Jack Wumble. He
held out the pipe he had picked up. "Is this yours?" he asked, of the
other man.

"It sure is!" cried Ike Furner, his eyes lighting up with pleasure. "I
thought sure she was gone fer good. I suppose ye found her on the
trail."

"I did."

"Thanks," and the other miner put the precious pipe in his pocket.
Then he gazed curiously at the crowd before him. "I don't understand
this nohow," he muttered. "That feller who was with me was all right
till you called an' whistled, then he acted plumb locoed."

"He is our brother," explained Dick, "and he is a bit out of his mind.
But we can't waste time explaining just now. We must hunt him up
before this storm gets any worse."

"That's the talk," said Sam.

"I don't see why he didn't meet you."

"We are afraid he had a tumble," answered Dick, and told about the
strange swishing and crashing they had heard.

"By gum! Maybe he went down into thet split in the rocks!" cried Ike
Furner. "I yelled to him to be careful o' thet openin'. But he was in
sech a hurry----" The miner did not finish.

"I'll get a fresh torch and we'll go back," said Jack Wumble. His face
wore a sober look. "A tumble down thet openin' would be putty bad," he
added.

"Want me to go along?" asked Ike Furner.

"You can go if you want to," answered Dick. "But fix your traps so
that no wild animals can get at the food."

"Oh, the grub is safe enough. I'll keep a good fire burnin'," answered
the prospector. They could readily see that he was a peculiar man, but
with