ture timidly
dropped from the branch of the tree and snuggled down into her arms,
grabbing the apple on the instant and sinking his sharp teeth into it.

At the very moment of her success there were crashing footsteps in the
bushes and into the opening rushed Tony Allegretto, the monkey's master.

"Ah-ah!" cried the Italian, his face glowing and his black eyes
snapping. "You try-a to steal-a da monk! Come to me Bebe--or I break-a
da neckl!"

[Illustration: "AH-AH!" CRIED THE ITALIAN, "YOU TRY-A TO STEAL-A DA
MONK!"]

He rushed toward the girl holding the monkey. The animal chattered
angrily and cowered in Laura's arms.

"Hold on," said Chet, stepping forward. "Nobody's stealing your monkey,
and don't you say we are. He was up the tree there and my sister got him
down for you. I reckon if you treated him half decently he wouldn't run
away from you."

"You! Ha!" sputtered Tony. "You one o' dem fresh boys, eh? Give-a me da
monk!"

"Let him have the creature, Laura," said Chet.

"He'll beat him. See how frightened poor Bebe is!"

"Can't help it," said her brother. "He belongs to the dago----"

"Calla me da dago, too!" stammered the angry Italian. "I fix-a you for
dis!" and he shook his fist at Chet.

"Come on and do your fixing right now," advised the big boy, easily.
"You won't find me as easy as Bebe, I bet you!"

"You 'Merican boys and girls want to steal my monk--want-a spoil-a da
act!" cried Tony. He grabbed Bebe out of Laura's arms, although the
monkey shrieked his protest at the exchange. But Tony did not beat the
little beast, and it clung to him with one arm around Tony's neck while
it finished the apple.

"You ought to thank us for finding your monkey for you," said Lance
Darby, in disgust.

Tony growled something in Italian and started off up the side of the
hollow. Before he got out of sight he was joined by a man who stepped
out of hiding in a clump of brush.

"Did you see that?" cried Lance, eagerly, in Chefs ear. "There's another
of 'em here."

"Another monkey?" laughed Chet.

But Dora whispered to Dorothy: "That man has whiskers. Do you suppose he
is our lone pirate?"

"I'd like to see this piratical individual you girls are talking about,"
laughed Laura, who was nearest to the Lockwood twins.

At that moment Lance and Chet were walking back toward the entrance to
the cave.

"Say, old man," Lance asked his chum, "what were you searching that
chamber in the cavern for? What did you