?
Twenty yards wide, and no telling how deep! This is snow-water straight
from the peaks. We're not a thousand feet below the snow-line."

"I can tell that. Look at those Jwari pines," I replied, pointing up
over the wall. A rugged slope rose above our camp-site, and it was
covered with a tangled mass of stunted pines. Many of them were twisted
and misshapen; some were half dead and bleached white at the tops. "It's
my first sight of such trees," I went on, "but I've studied about them.
Up here it's not lack of moisture that stunts and retards their growth.
It's fighting the elements--cold, storm-winds, snowslides. I suppose
not one in a thousand seedlings takes root and survives. But the forest
fights hard to live."

"Well, Ken, we may as well sit back now and talk forestry till Buell
skins all he wants of Penetier," said Dick. "It's really a fine
camping-spot. Plenty of deer up here and bear, too."

"Dick, couldn't we escape?" I whispered.

"We're not likely to have a chance. But I say, Ken, how did you happen
to turn up? I thought you were going to hop on the first train for
home."

"Dick, you had another think coming. I couldn't go home. I'll have a
great time yet--I'm having it now."

"Yes, that lump on your head looks like it," replied Dick, with a laugh.
"If Bud hadn't put you out we'd have come closer to licking this bunch.
Ken, keep your eye on Greaser. He's treacherous. His arm's lame yet."

"We've had two run-ins already," I said. "The third time is the worst,
they say. I hope it won't come.... But, Dick, I'm as big--I'm bigger
than he is."

"Hear the kid talk! I certainly ought to have put you on that train--"

"What train?" asked Stockton, sharply, from our rear. He took us in with
suspicious eyes.

"I was telling Ken I ought to have put him on a train for home,"
answered Dick.

Stockton let the remark pass without further comment; still, he appeared
to be doing some hard thinking. He put Dick at one end of the long cave,
me at the other. Our bedding was unpacked and placed at our disposal. We
made our beds. After that I kept my eyes open and did not miss anything.

"Leslie, I'm going to treat you and Ward white," said Stockton. "You'll
have good grub. Herky-Jerky's the best cook this side of Holston, and
you'll be left untied in the daytime. But if either of you attempts to
get away it means a leg shot off. Do you get that?"

"All right, Stockton; that's pretty square of you, considering,"