be back long before sundown," assured Connie. "That yell is
just what I _do want_ to hear."

At the _cache_ he raised the rotting blanket and peered beneath it and
there, as Pierre Bonnet Rouge had told him, was a black fox skin, and
its ermine collar. The boy examined the collar. It was an exact
counterpart of the three he had in his pocket. He replaced the blanket
and walked slowly back to camp, pondering deeply the mystery of the
collars, but the more he thought, the more mysterious it seemed.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE MAN IN THE CAVE

It was late afternoon when 'Merican Joe finished skinning the three
foxes and stretching the pelts. As the sun approached the horizon Connie
seated himself upon the sled at a point that gave him a clear view of
the rock-ledge on the hillside. 'Merican Joe went into the tent and
seated himself on his blankets, where he cowered with his thumbs in his
ears.

The lower levels were in the shadows, now, and the sunlight was creeping
slowly up the hill. Suddenly, from the rock-ledge appeared a black fox.
Connie wondered if he, too, wore an ermine skin collar. The fox sniffed
the air and trotted off along the hillside, where he disappeared behind
a patch of scrub. Again the boy's eyes sought the ledge, another fox was
trotting away and still another stood beside the rock. Then it came--the
wild quavering yell for which the boy waited. The third fox trotted
away as the yell came to its wailing termination, and Connie leaped from
the sled. "It's just as I thought!" he cried, excitedly. "_The fox never
gave that yell!_" The boy had expected to find just that, nevertheless,
the actual discovery of it thrilled him with excitement.

The head of 'Merican Joe peered cautiously from the tent. "Who giv' um
den?" he asked in fear and trembling.

"The man that's at the bottom of that fox-hole," answered the boy,
impressively, "and if I'm not mistaken, his name is James Dean."

The Indian stared at the boy as though he thought he had taken leave of
his senses. "W'at you mean--de bottom of de fox-hole?" he asked "Dat
hole so leetle small dat de fox she almos' can't git out!"

"That's just it!" cried the boy. "That's just why the man can't get
out."

"How he git in dere?" asked 'Merican Joe, in a tone of such disgust that
Connie laughed.

"I'll tell you that tomorrow," he answered, "after James Dean tells me."

"If de yell com' from de hole, den de _tamahnawus_ mak' um," imparted
the Indian