out somewhere. If you don't you
will only be sorry for it. You think you have got the best of me now,
but in a short time you will find out that it will be just the other
way. You don't suppose that I came here without knowing just what I was
doing, do you?"

"Well, you couldn't have known just what you were doing or this wouldn't
have happened."

Roche motioned toward the prisoners.

"It was a poor way for you to win out, this letting us get you and those
others, I think," he added.

"Well, of course, I did not expect anything like this to happen," Wild
answered, coolly. "That was a pretty good scheme your men put through
when they got me. But let me tell you that my two partners have gone to
get a crowd of miners to come here and clean, you out. They know just
how to get in, for they have seen the curtain raised in front of the
opening that leads in here. But they knew all about that last night, for
I followed you here and saw you come in. I told them all about it, and
they know just what to do now."

Cap Roche looked uneasy.

He did not relish the idea of the miners of Big Bonanza finding out
about the cave.

And he was now pretty certain that they would.

The fact that he was known to be the leader of the outlaws made it
impossible for him to go back to Silver Bend, too.

Though he had the best of Young Wild West just then, he knew he was in a
very bad box.

"You have done well, Young Wild West," he said, trying to appear cool.
"You have done something that no one else has been able to do--you have
found our cave and exposed the secret of it. I will admit that you have
ruined our game here, but you don't suppose that you are going to live
to enjoy telling about it, do you?"

"Oh, I don't know. I expect to live a long while, Cap Roche. I reckon
you think as much of your life as I do of mine. If you should kill me
you know very well that you would not live long after doing it. Your
friends would never get a chance to do you a good turn, for you would
never fall into the hands of the minions of the law. The only chance you
have got is to make a deal that suits me. If you don't want to do that,
do as you please."

Cap Roche got up and began pacing the rocky floor of the cave.

His uneasiness made his men feel in anything but a pleasant frame of
mind.

Suddenly he paused in front of Wild and said:

"Let's hear your proposition."

"I would much rather you would make one," was the calm reply.

"Coul