going," said Ned, "we've got to overtake them, if we can
do it."

"Guess, that'll save more or less trouble in the end," admitted Jack;
while Teddy and Frank were heard to mutter their approval of the
scheme.

Indeed, it was a rare occurrence for any of the scouts to radically
differ from their leader. Somehow, Ned Nestor seemed capable of judging
things just right, and these comrades tried and true had come to rely on
his way of looking at the solving of knotty problems as well nigh
perfect.

They passed the place where the men had been working. Perhaps some of
the lads might have been glad of a chance to stop and see how this
clever trick of making a mine appear ten times more valuable than it
really was, could be carried out; but there was no time for delay now.

On they rushed.

The channel seemed to be so fashioned up to now that they were not
compelled to make any choice between rival passages. There had been no
such thing as going astray. But shortly afterwards they came to a fork,
where a second fissure gaped before them.

Now came the question, which way had the three men gone in order to
reach the friendly exit they were acquainted with? Jimmy would have
perhaps thrown up a copper cent and trusted to "heads or tails" to
settle the matter for him; but this was not the happy-go-lucky way Ned
had of deciding.

Of course, it would have been an easy thing for him to have settled in
his mind which way the workings of the mine lay. All that was necessary
was to look and see which passage showed many marks of loads of ore
having been carried along it, portions of which had fallen from the
wheel-barrows.

But this would not tell them whether the men had fled by that passage or
along the other one. Just then they were bent on chasing after the three
miners, and not hunting for the spot from which ore had been taken.

Ned had an idea. These usually came to him like flashes of light, and
might almost be called happy inspirations.

He remembered that just after the tremendous crash several of the boys
had been half choked by the cloud of dust in the air. He himself had had
some difficulty in breathing, and refraining with an effort from
coughing. That gave him the thought upon which he hastened to act; and
it was here that his Boy Scout training stood him in good stead.

Immediately bending down he held his electric torch to the flat rock
that constituted the floor of the passage where it forked, and just as