use they'll be expecting every
moment for fire to be opened by us. Then they'll ride back without
another shot being fired at them, for the simple reason that I'm
hurrying round to join your people here by the top way and the gully. I
shan't lose any time, and if I'm lucky I may get here soon enough to
join you in giving the enemy a few bullets when they come riding back to
find their way stopped."

"As it ought to be," said the doctor dubiously.

"As it has got to be," said Griggs sharply. "Got to be--got to be, and
must be!" he cried.

"If all goes well," said Bourne.

"If all goes well, sir," said Griggs, "and if we all do our parts like
men, it will. Good-bye!"

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

LOOSENING THE STONES.

"Stop, Griggs!" cried Chris in a hoarse whisper, for he dared not shout;
but it seemed as if their brave companion had not heard. One minute he
was talking with them, the next he was gone, and had hardly made a
sound.

"Hah!" sighed the doctor. "Now it has come to the point I feel as if we
have let the gallant fellow go straight to his death."

"Lee!" cried Bourne in a voice of anguish. "Don't say that!"

"I have said it," said the doctor bitterly; "and now it is too late I
feel that it is true. The whole business looks black, and as desperate
as our mad search out here for the old golden city."

He ceased speaking, and Chris gripped Ned by the arm, for he shared his
father's feeling of despair.

The silence was broken by Bourne.

"It is too late to look back," he said gravely. "We have made the
venture, and must carry it out like men."

"Of course," cried Wilton firmly. "Come, doctor, you are captain. I
don't call this square of you to put us all out of heart. This is
making the worst of it, with a vengeance."

"Yes, it is--it is," said the doctor quickly. "You must forgive me.
Every man has his weak moments, and this was one of mine. I felt as if
I had sacrificed the poor fellow to this desperate attempt to escape."

"Yes, father," cried Chris bitterly. "It was my idea, and you ought to
have let me go with him."

"Ha, ha!" laughed Wilton.

"What are you laughing at?" cried Chris fiercely.

"You--your words came in with such a droll ring in them. But there, we
ought not to be talking now, but getting up into our hiding-places--eh,
doctor?"

"Yes," was the sharp reply, "at once. You, Wilton, Bourne, and Ned.
You, Chris, with me. Have you got the crowbar, my boy?"

"