Joe's heart sank within him.

"If old Benson was only here!" he muttered.

Still guarding the boys, the desperadoes took their guns and also a
pistol the young captain had loaned his brother.

"Now get on your horses," commanded Gilroy. "And mind, if you try to
play us foul both of you will get shot."

"Are you going to take us to Captain Moore?" asked Darry.

"Perhaps."

The desperadoes would answer no more questions, and in a few minutes the
whole party was off for the cave. Both Darry and Joe wished to leave
behind some sort of message which Benson might pick up, but they were
watched so closely they could do nothing.

When the cave was gained the boys were told to go inside and keep quiet.

"Joe! and you too, Darry!" cried Captain Moore. "I was afraid of this."

"No wonder we couldn't find you!" said Joe, and told of the hunt he and
his cousin had made.

"These rascals are up to some deep game," whispered the young captain.
"I just picked up a message which Gilroy must have dropped," and he told
what the sheet contained.

"If I were you I'd burn the paper," said Darry. "Then he won't know you
have seen it."

"No, I would like to keep the sheet----to show to Colonel Fairfield if I
can manage to get away."

"Who wrote the message?"

"I have no idea. There used to be a half-breed around here whom the
soldiers called Mose, but I thought he was dead. He was thick with the
Modoc Indians."

"Then if he was the writer that would show that the Indians are going to
help the desperadoes, wouldn't it?" asked Joe.

Before his brother could answer, Matt Gilroy stalked into the cave.

"I told you not to talk," he growled, as he cast his eye on the table
and then around the rocky floor. "You can't get away, so it won't do you
any good to plot against me and my men."

He was evidently looking for the sheet of paper, for presently he lit a
torch and went over the whole cave carefully.

"See anything of a bit of paper around here?" he asked presently.

"What kind of a paper?" questioned Darry.

"Something with writing on it."

"I haven't seen anything."

"What was the writing about, Gilroy?" asked Captain Moore.

"That's my business. Then you haven't seen the paper? All right," and
the desperado stalked from the cave again.

"That was a close shave," whispered the young captain. "And it proves
that the paper is valuable and that he is worried about it."

Slowly the balance of the day wore along, and