tle Brass God,
too, didn't you?"

"I certainly did!" was the reply.

"Well, was the man who sat before the fire, the same man who gave
you the drug?" Will went on. "Did you see him plainly?"

"I've been wondering about that," George replied. "Sometimes I
think Antoine is the man who sat before the fire with the ugly
Little Brass God leering down at him. Sometimes, I think it was
Pierre who sat there. I can't quite make up my mind."

"If it was Pierre," Will said gravely, "the Little Brass God will
probably never be found! The man who gave you the drugged drink
shot the half-breed to death this morning."

"Then I hope it wasn't Pierre who sat by the fire," Sandy declared.
"We've come a long way after that Little Brass God, and got into
many a mix-up over it, so we've just got to take it back to Chicago
with us!"

"Now look here," Will reasoned, "this Antoine had some motive in
putting us boys to sleep! We don't know what that motive was, but
I think I'm giving a pretty good guess when I say that he wanted to
prevent our interfering with the Little Brass God until he had
arranged to make anything we might do in that line absolutely
worthless."

"That listens good to me, too," declared Sandy. "The man wouldn't
try to drug us unless he had some strong motive for doing so!"

"We're all together once more, anyhow!" Will observed, "and I think
we'd better stay together. I never did like this idea of one boy
sneaking away in the night and leaving the others to guess where he
went to. It isn't safe to go wandering off alone in that way!"

"Yes, I'd talk about that if I were you!" laughed Sandy. "You go
wandering off by yourself more than any of the bunch!"

"I think it's a good thing for you boys that I went wandering off
alone this morning," Will argued.

"You didn't go wandering off alone!" Thede cut in. "You had Pierre
with you? Poor Pierre!" he continued. "I'm sorry for him! I
suppose we'll have to make some kind of a grave and give him decent
burial!"

"Sure, we'll do that!" agreed Will. "But what is puzzling me just
now is this," the boy went on, "how are we going to get out of this
hole with that Antoine watching our every move? He'll shoot us
down just as quick as he shot Pierre if he gets a chance."

The boys took short trips out of the cavern in quest of their
enemy, but were unable to discover any traces of him other than the
tracks in the snow. These led toward the chain of caverns w