?"

"Mebby ye-all be that. Kain't answer no questions, an' if ye don't keep
still Ah'll shoot ye. Ah reckon ye-all will keep still that-away."

"Ah reckon maybe you're right," agreed Hippy, and was silent.

Lieutenant Wingate was kept in the cave all that day. Now and then his
guard would go out for a short time, and, returning, would stand peering
down at the prisoner, but no further conversation passed between them.

Hippy tried to recall what had happened to him. He remembered riding
along the trail; remembered the good-natured teasing of the Overland
girls, then all at once consciousness was blotted out. He had a faint
recollection of being jolted, which probably was when he was being
carried away on a horse, but that was the extent of his recollections.
He did know that his head hurt him terribly and that it felt twice its
natural size. His throat was parched from thirst, but Lieutenant Wingate
declared to himself that he would die rather than ask a favor of the
ruffian there who was guarding him.

Shortly after dark Hippy heard voices outside the cave; then two men
came in, jerked him to his feet and, dragging him out, threw him over
the back of a pony just ahead of the saddle, as if he were a bag of
meal. When the rider mounted, Hippy was placed right side up on the
saddle, his companion sitting behind him on the horse's back.

A rough, miserable ride of something more than an hour followed; then
they halted. Hippy, now being blindfolded, could make out nothing of his
surroundings, but he realized that there were trees all about him, and
he could hear the snapping of a campfire, which reminded him of food and
that he was nearly famished.

"If they fry bacon near enough for me to smell, I'll break my bonds and
run--for the bacon," he added to himself.

Lieutenant Wingate was roughly yanked from the horse. He landed heavily
on the ground in a heap, where he was left to untangle himself as best
he could. By violent winking and twisting his head from side to side he
was able, by tilting his head well back, to displace the handkerchief
with which he had been blindfolded sufficiently to enable him to look
about.

Several men were holding a discussion by the campfire, and that their
conversation had to do with him, Hippy Wingate knew from the frequent
gestures in his direction, though he was too far away to distinguish
what they were saying.

The men finally came over to him and demanded to know who and what