is
face showed his anxiety.

"I think so, Ben. However, we'll find out as soon as we have made them
prisoners."

"That's the talk!" put in Roger. He turned to Dave's uncle. "Can't you
bind them or something, so that they can't get away?"

"We'll disarm them," announced Frank Andrews. "Jarvey and Brown are
wanted for that raid on old man Tolman's ranch and for using that bomb
on the bridge. We can prove through Pankhurst that they were with the
party."

"That man is Ward Porton's father," explained Dave to his uncle and
Ben, while the evil-doers were being searched and disarmed one after
another.

"Ward Porton's father, eh? Well, they seem to be two of a kind,"
answered Ben.

With their weapons taken from them, the prisoners could do nothing but
submit. They were questioned, but all refused to tell anything about
what they had done or intended to do.

"You'll never get anything out of me, and you'll never get those
miniatures back," growled Ward Porton, as he gazed sourly at Ben and
at Dave.

"We'll see about that, Porton," answered our hero. And then he
requested his uncle and Frank Andrews to keep an eye on the prisoners
while he, Roger and Ben set out for the knoll some distance away from
the creek.

"Ward Porton said he had hidden some cases in a _cache_ between some
rocks on that knoll," explained our hero. "By cases I think he meant
those containing the miniatures."

"Oh, I hope he did!" returned Ben, wistfully. "To get those miniatures
back means so much to my folks!"

CHAPTER XXX

THE FORTUNE RECOVERED--CONCLUSION

As Dave, Roger, and Ben tramped through the tall grass to where was
located a knoll of considerable size, the son of the Crumville real
estate dealer related how he and Dunston Porter had arrived in the
construction camp and how they had gotten Frank Andrews to show them
in what direction our hero and the senator's son had gone.

"We knew you were after Porton, and we hoped to catch sight of that
rascal," went on Ben, "but we didn't dream that we were going to
capture Ward and also those two men who are wanted for that raid on
the Tolman ranch. And to think that one of the men is Ward's father!
He certainly must be a bad egg!"

"He is, Ben," answered Dave. "And Ward is a chip of the old block."

The chums were soon ascending the knoll, containing many rocks between
which were dense clumps of chaparral. Here they had to advance with
care so as not to turn an ankle or get