adoes and ascertain what the chances of escape
really were.

As he gazed first to one side and then the other, he caught sight of a
hand waving in the air. A second later he made out the head and
shoulders of old Benson, as the scout rose to his feet behind some
brushwood.

The thought that the scout was at hand to assist them cheered the young
officer wonderfully, and he drew a deep breath of satisfaction.

"Are you going back soon?" growled one of the guards.

"Yes," answered the captain. "But I say," he went on, "why can't we come
to terms?"

"Don't want to make any terms with you," growled the other guard.

"It might be better for you to do so."

"We know our own business best, captain. You just go back as you was
ordered to do. If you don't----"

"I don't feel safe in the cave, men, to tell the truth. What is that
pounding overhead?"

"Pounding overhead?"

"Yes."

"Don't know of any pounding. Do you, Ike?"

"Nary a bit," replied the other guard.

By this time Joe and Darry were just behind the young officer.

"Watch out," whispered Captain Moore. "Old Benson is outside, in the
bushes on the left."

"Good for him!" whispered Joe joyfully.

"What are you talking about?" demanded one of the guards.

"I want to know about that pounding overhead," said Captain Moore. "I
don't want the roof to cave in on us."

He spoke so decidedly that both of the guards were deceived.

"Nobody is up there," said one of the two. "It must be some wild
animal."

"Can't one of you go up and look?" asked the young officer.

"You want the chance to get away," was the suspicious answer.

"How can we get away, when we are unarmed and you have that rifle," went
on the captain, speaking loudly, for old Benson's benefit. "It won't
take you a minute to look."

The men, however, refused to budge.

"We'll stay right here," said one, and the other nodded affirmatively.

In the meantime old Benson had crawled closer, until he was directly
behind the pair.

Now of a sudden he leaped between them, and as quick as a flash caught
their rifles and twisted the weapons from their grasp.

[Illustration: "HE LEAPED BETWEEN THEM AND CAUGHT THEIR RIFLES."]

As the old scout did this, the young captain also leaped in, followed by
Joe and Darry.

The guards struggled, but with four against them could do little or
nothing. One, however, had a powerful pair of lungs, and before he could
be stopped, set up a loud cry of alarm.