and sweet on his
perspiring head.

"This will be quite an adventure to tell about if I ever get out of
here," muttered Raynor, and the thought of Jack, whom he had almost
forgotten in his fright at his fall into the cave, occurred to him.

What could have happened to his chum? Surely he had not been foolhardy
enough to face the marauders alone? Raynor did not know what to make of
it.

"Somehow," he pondered, "I am sure that lantern had something to do with
Jack. I wonder if they would have dared to carry him off? I wish to
goodness I'd kept on, instead of leaning against that bush. Even if I do
get out of here, the light must be far out of sight by this time, and
I'll have to wait till daylight, anyhow, for I must have walked almost a
mile from the other entrance to the cave by this time."

His thoughts ran along in this strain as he walked. The thought of
Captain Simms' alarm, too, when he found both boys missing, gave him a
good deal of worry.

He was thinking over this phase of the situation when he was startled by
a low growl, coming from a pile of rocks just ahead of him. What could
it be? Holding his breath painfully, while a cold chill ran down his
spine, Raynor came to a dead pause and listened. His improvised torch
had almost burned out and it was appalling to think that he faced the
possibility of being in darkness ere long, with a wild beast close at
hand.

Again came the growl. It echoed and re-echoed hollowly in the cave till
the frightened lad appeared to be menaced from all directions.

"It must be a bear, or some wild beast just as bad," thought Raynor.

The growling was repeated, but now it appeared to be retreating from
him. Plucking up courage, after a while, Raynor, waving his torch,
pushed forward again. He came to a place where it was necessary to
scramble up to a sort of platform considerably higher than the path he
had been traversing.

As he gained this, he saw several tiny bright lights in front of him.

"Hurrah! It's the stars!" he cried aloud.

"The--s-t-a-r-s!" the echoes boomed back.

At almost the same instant Raynor saw, in front of him, what looked like
two balls of livid green flame.

But the boy knew that they were the eyes of whatever beast it was that
had sent its growls echoing fearfully through the cave.

CHAPTER XVI.

A "GHOSTESS" ABROAD.

Suddenly, like an inspiration, Jack thought of a way in which he might
free his captive hands. Naturally quick-wit