called Bristles, who
could not get the notion out of his head that the other may have been
seriously injured.

"Why, no, nothing to mention," came the ready answer. "A few more little
scratches, it might be, but then they don't count. Kind of knocked the
breath out of my body at first, and took me a little while to recover,
but no damage done, boys."

"What are you doing with the light, Fred?" Colon wanted to know.

"I only wanted to see what sort of a place this is, that's all," Fred
told him, as his match expired, and the darkness came again.

"And did you find out?" continued Bristles, eagerly, possibly his mind
beginning to wrestle with all sorts of strange ideas concerning hidden
treasure vaults, and, mysterious hiding-places where counterfeiters
carried on their illegal trade.

"It seems to be only an ordinary cave, like others we've run across,"
Fred told them. "If you felt like coming down, I think it would be easy
enough."

"Not the way you tried it, Fred; you'll have to excuse me," laughed
Bristles. "But I think I can feel the rough rocks here, and seems as if
a fellow as spry as Colon might manage to shuffle down. Anyhow, I'm
going to try it. I've got a few matches of my own in my pocket, that we
could use to look around with."

"Take it slow, and no hurry, boys," warned Fred, at the same time moving
out of the way, so that if a stone were dislodged in their passage, it
would not come in contact with his head.

For a couple of minutes there could be heard a scraping noise, as the two
boys lowered themselves down into the opening. Fred struck another
match, which he held up in order to give them the benefit of the feeble
illumination. Assisted by this light, both of the newcomers managed to
reach the side of their chum without encountering any serious difficulty.

"Well, here we are, fellows, all down!" Bristles declared, with a sigh of
relief. "I only hope that when we try to climb up again, it won't be an
all day job."

"Much easier than coming in," Colon told him. "It always is, when you're
mounting a steep cliff; because then you can see just where you're going.
When starting down you hardly know where to put each foot, and when you
look to see, it makes you giddy to find how far below the bottom lies."

"Did you see anything when you looked around, that made you want to take
a second peep, Fred?" asked Bristles, still clinging to his suspicion.

"I don't know," replied Fred. "It