e hasn't got 'em yet," George declared.

"Oh, he's had hard luck, all right enough," Will and Chester heard Tommy
say, "but he's a nervy sort of a chap, and he'll take them out with him
when he goes."

"That's the fellow that wanted to lynch us!" George grumbled.

"That was a bluff!" Tommy said. "That's the kind of third degree
business they go into out in the mountains. I guess that was all a
by-play, anyhow. You don't catch no western sheriff lynching his own
prisoners. And this sheriff of Fremont county will just get even with
those train robbers for that hold-up!" the boy added.

The boys listened intently for a short time, not daring to show their
light yet. From the conversation they had heard they understood that
their chums had been placed in the tunnel for safe keeping, and they
feared that their captors might appear at any moment.

After a time two shots came from the cavern end of the dry channel, and
the close air of the place became almost stifling with the smell of
powder smoke. Then the two watchers heard George and Tommy scrambling
down to the place where they stood.

Will flashed his light but instantly closed it.

"Did you see that?" they heard Tommy ask.

"Sure I did!"

"What do you think it is?"

"I give it up!" replied George.

No one spoke for an instant and then the call of the Beaver came out of
the darkness.

"Slap, slap, slap!"

"Do you mind that, now?" asked Will.

"I don't see how I could fail to recognize that!" Chester said.

"Of course not," Will agreed. "That's the call of the Beaver."

Will answered the challenge, and presently Tommy and George came
tumbling down the tunnel into the larger opening and landed almost at
the feet of their chums. In their joy at the meeting, the boys almost
hugged each other, which they would not have done in daylight!

"So they got you, too, did they?" asked Tommy.

"I should say not," answered Will.

"But you're here, ain't you?"

"Yes, but we came here of our own free will," Chester cut in.

"How'd you ever find it?" asked George.

"Just blundered into it," was the answer. "We were looking for father,
and thought we might find him in the cavern where the three men were
seen around the campfire."

"So that passage out there is really the place where the mysterious
disappearance took place? Where the three men went up in the air?"

"Where the three men came down into this dry channel!" corrected George.

"Who were the three m