ey could drag the sleds along. But less than half an hour brought them
to the spot which Bill Harney had in mind--a grand and wild place, where
the mountain appeared to split in two for a distance of several hundred
feet. Here there was a gorge fifty or sixty feet deep, partly choked
with small scrub cedars.

"There's the hole," said Harney, advancing into the gorge and pointing
with his hand.

"Better go ahead and see if it is free of bears or other wild animals,"
suggested Dan Baxter, as he came to a halt.

Rifle in hand the guide went into the opening, and made a thorough
examination of the surroundings.

"Aint been no b'ars nor nothin' else here," he declared. "You can come
right in."

The opening on one side of the gully was an irregular one, and beyond
this was a large cave having several chambers. All was pitch dark in the
inner chambers, and they lit some brushwood to give them light. Then a
regular fire was started, which did much toward making the surroundings
warmer and more cheerful.

Dan Baxter and his friends were hungry, and lost no time in preparing a
meal. Tom and Sam were led to one side of an inner chamber, and the rope
fastened to their hands was bound tightly to the protruding roots of a
tree.

"Now, don't you attempt to escape," said Baxter. "If you do--well,
you'll wish you hadn't, that's all."

And then he rejoined his companions in the outer chamber, leaving poor
Tom and Sam to their misery.

CHAPTER XXII.

JASPER GRINDER TRIES TO MAKE TERMS.

"Well, Tom, this looks as if we had put our foot into it," was Sam's
comment, delivered in a whisper.

"Don't despair, Sam," said his brother cheerfully. "We have been in
worse holes, remember, and always managed to escape with a whole skin."

"That's true, but I don't see how we are going to get away now. I
suppose somebody will stand on guard all the time."

"Perhaps Dick and Mr. Barrow will come to the rescue."

"If they can find the way. The wind and snow will cover the trail pretty
well."

"There's no use of crying over the affair. If we can break away, I'll be
for doing so."

"So will I."

"Hi, you stop your talking in there!" shouted Dan Baxter. "Plotting to
run away, I reckon. It won't do you any good. If you try it, somebody
will get a dose of buckshot in the leg."

"You don't mean to say you're going to stop our talking," said Tom, in
indignation.

"That's just what I do mean to say. Now stop--or go hungry."