ing every instant to be able to draw Fenton
from under the stone and so lessen his sufferings, they saw the hand of
the man they were so unselfishly assisting stealing toward his hip
pocket.

"Watch him!" whispered Will. "He means to shoot us as soon as he is
released! That shows what kind of a dirty dog he is!"

As the rock was lifted by slow degrees and propped so that its weight
was not so heavy upon the unfortunate man the boys saw that his hand was
creeping closer to his hip pocket.

When at last the weight was removed, Fenton's first act was to attempt
to draw his weapon. Ed kicked it from his hand and then proceeded to tie
the fellow's wrists together behind his back.

"You're a dirty sneak," the boy exclaimed, "or you wouldn't try to kill
the people who have saved your life! From this time on, you get no
assistance from us!"

"I didn't mean anything!" whined Fenton.

"Don't lie about it!" fritted Will. "Where's Cameron?"

"You'll find him lower down!" was the reply.

"I hope he's broken his neck!" Ed cut in.

But Cameron had not broken his neck. Instead, he had broken an arm, and
one foot had been badly bruised by a falling stone. He was unconscious
when the boys lifted him and laid him in an easier position.

The two men were at once searched for weapons and left for the time
being to take care of themselves. There was no fear of their escaping,
for one of Fenton's legs had sustained a compound fracture and Cameron's
foot was badly injured.

"What next?" asked Will as the two boys stood facing the spot where they
believed George, Sandy and Bert to be buried under many tons of rock.
"It seems as if we ought to do something for the boys!"

"I'm afraid it's too late!" replied Ed, dejectedly.

"We never can dig under those rocks without help," commented Will,
"therefore, I think we'd better be on the watch for Tommy and Frank and
the surgeon. They surely ought to be somewhere near the cottage by this
time, if not already in it."

"If they've had such blooming bad luck as we have," Ed observed,
"they're probably in jail somewhere! I don't think I ever saw anything
in a worse mess! The very Old Nick seems to be after us!"

"This," Will observed with a grave smile, "is what we call a quiet
little Boy Scout excursion! We have visited the Pictured Socks, the
Everglades, the Great Continental Divide, the Hudson Bay country and got
trapped in an anthracite mine in Pennsylvania since we started out on
ou