it
would be the cabin."

"So he moved in here and hid it!" Tommy went on. "And we boys
chased along and drove him out into the wide, wide world. Now the
question is whether he took the Little Brass God back to the cavern
or whether he left it hidden about the cabin."

"It's a hundred to one shot," Sandy observed, "that this dead East
Indian knew that the image he sought was in or about this cabin.
The first night we came here he prowled about looking for it and
tried to get one of us boys into a hypnotic trance. We don't know
how many times he has been back here since that night."

"But who sent the fellow up here after the Little Brass God,
anyway?" asked George. "How did he come to get on the track of the
ugly little devil."

"I guess that's something we'll have to find out in Chicago,"
replied Will. "All we know is that Antoine was scared to death of
him, as shown by his sudden flight from the cavern when he looked
in and saw the East Indian and his guide standing looking out at
him."

"And they chased him clear up to our burning tree!" Thede cut in.

"That's a fact," Sandy replied. "That dusky faced chap certainly
had Antoine buffaloed!"

"Well," Will went on, "the East Indian kept returning to the cabin
and Antoine kept returning to the cabin, so it's a pretty safe bet
that the Little Brass God we seek is here. Besides, the fact that
Antoine asked if the East Indian found anything proves that it is
in or about the cabin."

"Well, we're going to find it if we tear the cabin to pieces,"
Tommy said. '"As Will says, it is a sure thing it is not far away."

There was not much sleep in the cabin that night, and it was a
dreary supper the boys ate. Before daylight the Indian lay down
upon the floor in a blanket, but the other boys remained awake
until morning.

Then they began the search for the Little Brass God. They were
satisfied now that Pierre had never had possession of it, that he
had been despatched as one familiar with the woods and the ways of
Antoine, in the Sigsbee interests to secure it from the man who had
purchased it at the pawn shop. Everything pointed, as has been
stated, to Antoine's being the man who had taken it out of Chicago.

The boys searched the cabin for two days until not a sliver of the
inside remained uninvestigated. Then, after putting up their
tents, they began taking the structure down, log by log.

On the third day they found what they sought in the heart of