one way to git to it from the outside, and that is a purty hard
one; so hard that half a dozen men could hold it agin' a thousand; and
the other way to git to it is through the caves; and ye've got to know
them galleries mighty well in order to find yer way through. I think
you'll do it, because you act as if you had been in caves afore."

The place was a "sasser" in the mountains, sure enough. On every side of
it there were frowning cliffs, which rose hundreds of feet in the air;
and these cliffs were as inaccessible from the outside as they were from
the saucer itself. There was only one pathway, and that was through a
narrow fissure, barely wide enough for one big man to walk through it.

And this latter could have been stopped up with rocks in half an hour,
so that nobody could get through it.

Handsome made the supposed Turner walk in front of him when they entered
the fissure; and thus it was that they appeared on the opposite side of
it; then Handsome took the lead.

Already the hoboes had erected cabins of slabs and of logs; and many of
them were still at work building others; but as with one accord they
ceased to work when they saw Handsome approaching with the old man; and
they stared at him.

"Have you got another one, Handsome?" somebody called out to him; but
Handsome deigned no reply, passing on in silence, and leading the way to
a cabin that was larger and better than the others, and which stood
exactly in the centre of the miniature valley.

Nick guessed that this was the temporary home of Black Madge, and he
was, therefore, not at all surprised when she stepped out upon the porch
in front of it.

She showed her white and even teeth, and smiled, in her own bold way, as
Handsome approached her, with Nick in tow; and she asked, as soon as
they were near enough:

"Whom have we here?"

"It is the old chap I have told you about, Madge," replied Handsome.

"Sent here to spy upon us, I suppose," she smiled scornfully. "Why
didn't you shoot him at once instead of bringing him here?"

Before Handsome could reply, Nick wheeled upon him.

"Didn't I tell ye so?" he demanded, with a show of anger. "Didn't I tell
ye so? Didn't I say that they be thinking that I was a spy; but you
wouldn't have it so? Tell me that."

"I don't think he is a spy, Madge," said Handsome. "Remember that I have
known him for a considerable time. And I have found him on the level."

Madge shrugged her shoulders.

"All right