ps not. I hope she won't, anyhow, because I mean to leave you and
Mark here to guard our prisoner while I'm gone," said Elmer.

"Oh, I see, you want to join the rest of the troop. Perhaps you've got a
hunch they might be needing you about now?" Lil Artha observed.

"One thing I know, and that is they've left the low ground and gone up
the side of the mountain."

"I guessed that myself when I heard some of the fellers callin' up
yonder. So it stands to reason they've lost the trail among the rocks,"
Lil Artha went on.

"I expect as much," Elmer said, "and you know that since the men carried
Nat Scott away with them we've just got to find them sooner or later."

"But why d'ye suppose now they'd be so pesky mean as to climb the hill?"
demanded the tall scout.

"Oh, perhaps they guessed it would be harder for anyone to track them up
there," Elmer answered.

"Yes, that's so," Mark put in; "or it might be they know of some fine
cave up yonder where they can hide. You often run across caves, big and
little, on stony hills."

Elmer seemed to agree with this suggestion, for he nodded his head after
Mark had advanced it.

"Do you think you can manage?" he asked.

"Well, we'd be a pretty pair of scouts, wouldn't we now, if we failed to
make good on a job like this?" scoffed Lil Artha.

He threw his staff over his shoulder, gun fashion, and began tramping up
and down before the door of the hidden shack, just as though he were a
military sentry on duty.

"I guess you'll do all right, Lil Artha," laughed Elmer.

"Before you go, Elmer," said Mark, "please tell us just why you believe
these Italians haven't meant to hurt our chum Nat."

"Well, I just seem to feel it in my bones, and that's about all I can
say," returned the other. "I'm more convinced now than ever that it's
going to turn out only a silly mistake on their part. Perhaps they've
been doing something here that's against the law, and the sight of our
uniforms threw them into a panic. They've carried Nat off with them just
so he couldn't give the alarm, and bring the rest down on 'em."

"Counterfeiting, perhaps," suggested Mark. "Seems to me I've heard that
the Italians are pretty smart at that sort of thing."

"Well, I don't imagine it's anything as serious as that," Elmer replied.

"Then tell us what you _do_ think," demanded Lil Artha.

"You _will_ force my hand, will you?" laughed Elmer.

"It's only fair to tell us," pleaded the tall scout.

"Well