s got the Mexicans."

"And Pedro?"

"And Pedro!"

"Sure, who else could it be?" they cheered each other.

But it was neither.

CHAPTER IX

TED'S FOSSIL DINOSAUR

An hour later two famished and exhausted boys were peering at the huge
bon-fire by which Norris and Long Lester had decided to camp till dawn.

"Wal, durn yer hide, I'm that glad to see you I've a notion to wallop
you," the old guide welcomed them. "But I'm not a-goin' to ask you a
single word till you've et," and he proceeded to build up a brighter
fire. "Peel off them duds, and roll up here in our blankets whilst we dry
things for you."

The bedraggled boys allowed Norris to help them out of their heavy,
water-soaked clothing, for their hike down the mountainside in the night
wind had fairly stiffened their joints. First Long Lester administered a
quart apiece of scalding tea, then insisted that, fagged as they were,
they bathe their feet. "A camper is as good as his feet," and Pedro had
yet to be located.

It was decided that, as they were all of them worn out, and Pedro,
wherever he was, would likely sleep himself when night came, they would
wait till dawn to search for him and the Mexicans. While it was a
question as to whether they were still in the cave, it seemed best to
search there first.

At the moment of the earthquake, Pedro had been crawling through a narrow
passageway, bed of some former watercourse, whose walls dripped black in
the glow of his dying torch. Then came a crash before him!--A chunk of
rock had fallen from the roof into the passageway. When the alarming
swaying motion and the thunder of the bowlder's fall had subsided, and he
had relighted the torch, (which had been extinguished), he found his
forward progress effectually blocked. Behind were the Mexicans,--Sanchez
possibly still plugging the opening into the passageway. He was a
prisoner! He was entombed!

At first, utter panic possessed him. In like situation, those of weak,
nervous timbre have been known to go insane. Then he got a grip on
himself and reasoned that Norris and the rest would not leave him to his
fate. They would never give him up till they had searched the cave
thoroughly, and had he not left his bandanna at one turn, his
handkerchief at another, and the end of a freshly charred torch at a
third? Besides, (he smiled grimly), if his own party did not find him,
the Mexicans might. Or if they captured the Mexicans, they would wring
from them a