eclared Nort.

But, as he spoke, there was a loud report down near the valley camp.
Men were seen running, as if from danger, and as the boys looked they
saw a cloud of smoke roll up, and part of a side hill slide down.

CHAPTER XIX

PRISONERS

"Would you look at that!" shouted Nort, pointing down into the valley.
"They must be under bombardment! It's a battle, Dick!"

"Nonsense!" cried the younger lad, not as impulsive as his brother.
"They're blasting; that's what they're doing! Trying to locate a
pocket of gold, I reckon. But now we're all right, Nort. They'll tell
us how to get back to Diamond X, even if they can't put us on the trail
of the cattle we so stupidly missed."

"Well, maybe they can, and then again, maybe they can't," said Nort
slowly.

"What do you mean?" asked Dick.

"Well, they may be able to tell us the way to Diamond X, but maybe they
won't want to tell us where the missing cattle are."

"You mean they may have taken 'em _themselves_?" asked Dick, and there
was surprise in his voice.

"It's possible," declared Nort. "But we can't find out much by staying
up here. Let's ride down and see what's going on. I reckon it's as
you say--they have been blasting."

At first no one paid any attention to the approach of Dick and Nort.
The men who had run away as the blast let loose, now hurried back to
peer into the excavation made by the explosion. And among those who
thus eagerly sought to see the inner secrets of the earth, our heroes
recognized Professors Blair and Wright. These two scientists were
foremost among the men standing on the edge of the hole that had been
torn in the earth.

"No success!" Dick and Nort heard Professor Wright say as he turned
aside from the hole. "We must try lower down."

"Higher up, I should say," spoke Professor Blair.

"Oh, no. You must remember that the deposits are weighty, and would be
brought lower and lower each year by gravity, as well as by the sliding
action of the hill under the influence of erosion."

"Yes, you are correct, Professor," admitted Mr. Blair, and then the two
turned and beheld Dick and Nort at hand.

Surprise, and no very pleased surprise at that, was manifest on the
faces of the two scientists as they viewed the boys. Grouped around
the professors were several Mexicans, or Greasers, a Chinese, evidently
the cook of the "outfit," and a number of workmen, unmistakably
American. These last looked at the boys with sc