ord.

"But," insisted Frank, seeking to argue the matter in order to bring
out the opinion of his chum, "these other men had strong motives in
doing what was done there, and you don't indicate any motive the fourth
man might have had!"

"I have a faint hint of a motive humming in my brain," Nestor answered,
"but it is not sufficiently well developed to talk about now. There
was something afoot in the building that night that has not yet come to
the surface."

"You surely don't believe the tales told by Scoby and Felix, or by Don
Miguel, either?" asked Frank.

"They may be telling the truth, or part of the truth. However, Scoby
and Felix are not sincere in their statements. There is something they
are not telling."

"Well," Frank observed, "we ought to be getting down to brass tacks. If
we get Fremont away from those ruffians to-night he'll want to be
jumping at something right away, and there ought to be a line of work
laid out."

"Don't get excited," laughed Nestor. "We're getting along pretty well.
We've found the mine, and we've taken three prisoners. If there was a
fourth man in the mixup that night, we'll soon know who he was and why
he was there."

"I wish I knew whether the munitions of war got across the border,"
Frank said, after a pause.

"The mountain has been remarkably quiet to-day," suggested Nestor.

"What does that mean?"

"Don't you think the men would be making a lot of noise if they had
arms in their hands?" Nestor asked.

"Perhaps they are making noise somewhere."

"They may make all the noise they want to, if they keep off Texas
soil," replied Nestor.

"I have been talking with Stevens," Frank went on, "and he gives a
doleful account of the situation in New York. They left nearly two
days after you did, you remember. It is said that Cameron is not
likely to recover, and that he still, in a rambling way, talks of
Fremont as the person who assaulted him. That looks bad."

"It is fortunate that we got the boy out of New York," replied Nestor.
"Even the temporary captivity he is undergoing is better than the
Tombs."

"I'm afraid he's on the way to the Tombs now," Frank said. "He surely
is unless we can do something immediately. The big rascal may come
upon a band of outlaws any minute that would be too strong for us to
attack."

During this talk Jimmie had been searching for nuggets on the eastern
side of the chamber, finding a small one occasionally when the light
was