ible," declared Aleck. "Dad did the same; and if
he hadn't those specimens, nobody would ever have believed that he'd
found anything worth while. And now, do we start back to the fissure
in the cliff, Thad?"

"Might as well;" replied the other. "And while we're about it, let's
drag out the dead wolves, so as to throw them in some hole where they
won't bother any more."

"I wonder if that other cub came back; I'd better make ready to knock
it on the head, for it would die anyway, without a mother."

Aleck's voice had a catch in it as he said this, and Thad understood;
the boy was thinking of his own mother, and how her prayers for his
safety must have been the means of raising up for him such staunch
friends as the scouts of the Silver Fox Patrol.

But when they came to the place where the animals lay they saw nothing
of the other partly grown wolf. So Thad, having his gun and the
lantern to manage, took charge of the offspring, while Aleck tugged at
the big she wolf; and in this fashion they drew near the exit.

"Sh!"

It was Thad who uttered this low hiss of warning. His action was
prompt in addition, for raising the lantern, he gave one sturdy puff,
causing the flame to vanish.

Utter darkness surrounded them. Aleck had dropped the leg of the big
wolf, and drew back the hammer of his rifle.

"Perhaps it was the other cub, Thad?" he whispered, as softly as the
night wind creeps in and out of the trees, caressing each leaf as it
passes on.

"No, it sounded more like voices!" came the equally low reply.

"Voices! Oh! do you mean men may be near us?" gasped Aleck, a cold
chill passing over him at the dreadful prospect of losing his
long-sought patrimony just after finding it.

"It sounded like that Kracker; listen, and we'll soon know," Thad went
on to say; and crouching there, the two boys waited for a repetition
of the suspicious sound.

CHAPTER XXV.

CLOSE TO DISCOVERY.

When the sound of the voice came again even Aleck heard it plainly. Why,
it seemed so very near that his first thought was that the men must have
found the entrance to the treasure cave, and were pushing along the
tunnel at that very moment. But on reflection Aleck realized that this
could not be so, for the voice came from somewhere in the open air.

"I jest ain't agoin' any further, an' that's a fact. Might as well
rest up right here as keep on. I never was for comin' back, to spy on
them ere scouts, but two agin one kerri