," answered Dave, and pointed to
the goods tied up in the rubber cloth.

"So that's the trick, eh?" bellowed Abe Blower.

"First the hosses an' now the stores!" roared Tom Dillon. "Humph! Ye
deserve to be shot full o' holes!" he went on, for he had lived in the
times when the stealing of a horse, or of a miner's food, was considered
by everybody a capital offense.

"I--I beg of you, have mercy!" cried Job Haskers, as he got unsteadily
to his feet. "I--I--this was not my plan at all--Merwell suggested it.
We--we were not going to--er--to steal anything."

"No? Then wot was ye goin' ter do?" demanded Abe Blower, sarcastically.

"We were--er--only going to hide the stuff," stammered Link Merwell, and
he glared at Job Haskers savagely for having tried to place the
responsibility of the raid on his shoulders.

"I don't believe a word of it!" came sternly from Tom Dillon. "You
wanted to leave us to starve here, or compel us to go back to town--so
you could hunt for that lost mine alone. I see through the trick. We
ought to shoot you down like dogs!"

"It's jest wot they deserve, consarn 'em," muttered Abe Blower.

"We don't want anybody shot!" said Dave, to his chums. He saw that the
two old miners were angry enough to do almost anything.

"Let us--er--go this time and we'll never bother you again," pleaded Job
Haskers. He was so scared he could scarcely speak.

"Step over here, by this rock, and keep your hands up," said Tom Dillon.
"We'll talk this over a bit further."

There was no help for it, for Merwell and Haskers were now virtually
prisoners. They stepped to the position mentioned, with their hands
still upraised.

"Go through 'em, Abe," went on Tom Dillon. "Take their shootin' irons
away from 'em."

"See here----" commenced Merwell, when a stern look from the old miner
stopped him. Haskers said nothing, for he was still fearful of being
shot.

In a few minutes the two intruders were disarmed by Abe Blower. While
this was being done Roger whispered to Dave.

"Don't you think we ought to search 'em thoroughly?" he asked. "They may
have something belonging to me--some map of the lost mine, or something
like that? I don't exactly remember what I had in that suit-case Merwell
got from the porter on the train."

"Certainly, we'll have them well searched," declared Dave, and spoke to
Tom Dillon about it. As a consequence, despite their protests, Abe
Blower turned out every pocket of the prisoners.

"Th