ce would have been
foolhardy.

"What do you intend to do with me?" asked our hero, after he had been
made a prisoner by having his hands bound behind him.

"We'll hold ye till Dr. Mackey comes back."

"When will that be?"

"Can't say."

This ended the talk, and presently the guerrillas moved up the mountain
side to where there was a fair-sized cave.

They marched our hero into this cave, and tied him and his companions
fast to some jagged rocks in the rear.

A fire was started up and the outlaws--for the guerrillas were nothing
less--proceeded to make themselves comfortable by lying around,
drinking, smoking, and playing cards.

Gendron was not badly wounded, and sat up to look on at the
card-playing.

So the hours wore away. Toward night a scout went out to learn what the
armies were doing, and he did not come back until the next day.

Two days were spent by Jack and his companions in the cave. During that
time the guerrillas treated them brutally, and gave them hardly
sufficient food to keep them from starving.

Gendron was particularly bitter against Jack, and insulted our hero upon
every possible occasion.

"If I was the doctor I'd blow your head off, and get that money for
myself," he said once.

"What do you know about that money?" demanded Jack.

At this the guerrilla closed one eye suggestively.

"I know a whole lot, sonny."

"Then you know what a rascal Dr. Mackey is?

"I didn't allow as how he is a rascal, sonny."

"Well, he is, and you know it. I can't see how he puts up with a fellow
like you, though."

This was said to draw Gendron on, and it had the desired effect.

"He can't help himself," chuckled the guerrilla. "I know too much."

"What do you know."

"I know all about the doctor's private papers--the ones he carries in
the tin box."

"The papers about the property?"

"O' course."

"Those papers won't help him any," went on Jack, wondering what the
guerrilla would say next.

"Won't they? They'll prove that he is----. But never mind--you shan't
git nothin' out o' me," and then Gendron relapsed into sudden silence,
as though he realized that he had been talking too much.

On the afternoon of the next day Dr. Mackey appeared, accompanied by
another man, evidently an officer of the guerrillas. His face grew dark
as he gazed first at Jack and then at Old Ben and Columbus Washington.

"So you were going to help Jack to escape," he said harshly to the
negroes.

"Jack is