pe!"

"I reckon you'll find that my rope is a great deal longer than you
think," Wild answered, thinking it good policy to keep in conversation
with them, as the more time Charlie and Jim had to figure out a way of
helping him the better it would be.

"Ha, ha, ha!"

Again Snivel laughed.

It was evident that he was very sure that it was all up with Young Wild
West.

The success the outlaws had met with since they had established their
quarters in the cave no doubt made them confident that they could not be
ousted.

"Boys," said Snivel, as he turned from our hero, evidently satisfied
that he could gain nothing by trying to frighten him, "I reckon you had
better bury ther bodies of Pete an' Simon. I don't know as there's any
use in waitin' fur Cap ter come. He won't be here till some time after
dinner, he said when he went away last night. He's tryin' ter git ther
stage coach ter run through ther pass ag'in, an' if it does we'll let it
go fur ther first two or three trips, an' then when they've got a good
pile aboard we're goin' ter nab on it. Cap knows his business, all
right; an' we make more by his bein' away than we do when he's here."

"That's right," answered the man, who seemed to have more to say than
any of the rest. "I reckon we'll go ahead with our funeral. I'll take
what they've got on 'em, an' you kin put in ther box inside, so ther
boss kin take charge of it. I know they both must have had a few dollars
when this unexpected business happened. This are too bad! It's ther
first loss we've met with since we've been banded together."

"That's right, Aleck," replied Snivel. "You go ahead. Joe an' Dick kin
go ahead an' dig ther grave that'll answer fur ther pair of 'em. Poor
fellers! They never knowed what struck 'em, fur ther galoots what fired
them shots aimed 'em mighty straight, an' there was no sufferin' done.
I'm mighty glad I wasn't in ther way of one of them bullets."

"Well, we all are, as fur as that goes. But it's a shame that they had
ter be snuffed out that way."

He went away to attend to the work assigned him, as did the others who
had been named.

Then Snivel walked back into the cave, leaving Wild to his own
reflections.

The villain found Arietta sitting on a box, over which some skins had
been thrown to make it comfortable.

The girl had not been tied, the villains evidently thinking that there
was no danger of her escaping, as she was but a girl.

But she was being closely wa