hem aside while we crawled through a crack in
the rock, and then grabbed them. Oh, he's a foxy old fellow, that!"

"Well, we can't get out if we stand here talking all day," Sandy
ventured. "The longer we stay, the hungrier we'll get!"

"What I'd like to know," Will suggested, "is this: Why did he do
it? What spite has he against us?"

"If you leave it to me," Thede replied, "the Little Brass God has
something to do with it! I don't know whether Pierre has
possession of the ugly little beast, or whether he is trying to get
possession of it, but I believe he has a notion that we're trying
to get bold of it."

"Well, that's a good guess," grinned Tommy.

During all this conversation the voice of the half-breed had been
frequently heard, alternately cursing and coaxing the lads to enter
the outer chamber where he could talk with them.

"What do you want?" Will asked finally.

"Come here!" was the answer.

Tommy stepped half-way through the opening and flashed his
searchlight into the apartment beyond.

"That is better!" shouted Pierre,

"So that's what you want?" demanded Tommy. "You want light to
shoot us by!"

"Send the other boy out!" demanded the half-breed. "Send out the
one I brought here!"

"He wants you, Will," Tommy said.

As the boy was about to step into the opening, Thede caught him by
the arm and drew him back.

"Just you wait a minute," he said.

The lad placed a sliver of rock in Will's hat and held it beyond
the opening, at the same time letting the rays of the searchlight
fall full upon it.

"I know that half-breed better than you do," Thede said, as he
pushed the hat out further and further.

When the hat was about as far out as the boy could send it without
risking his own hands, a rifle shot rang through the cavern and the
bullet cut its way through the exposed hat.

"Don't you see?" Thede asked. "He knows you have a gun, and he
figured that you'd fall into this chamber, and that we wouldn't
dare reach over for it. He's a foxy old reprobate!"

"What next?" demanded Will.

"You just wait a minute!" Thede advised. "I think I know a way
out! If we just could get in behind that half-breed and chuck him
into the prison he prepared for us, it would be a mighty fine joke
on him!"

CHAPTER XI

THE HALF-BREED

But the way out was not to lie through undiscovered passages! It
was set by fate that it was to be over the dead body of the
half-breed!

While the boys