"What about it?" asked Sheriff Pete.

"That's a long story," Will answered.

One of the outlaws now stepped forward, although he still held himself upright by one hand on the wall.

"You're a nervy chap, Sheriff," he said.

"Turn and turn about is fair play!" replied the officer. "It isn't so very long ago that you held me up."

"Any man can hold up another when he has a loaded gun in his face," said the outlaw.

"It strikes me," the sheriff said, "that you'd better be removed from this hole as quickly as possible. Your wounds probably need attention."

"We're not sobbing about the wounds," was the reply. "The only kick we've got coming is that our ammunition gave out."

"You would have been taken in time!" was the reply.

"I guess that's right, with a man like you on our track, I've been in a good many tight spots but I never saw a man walk into a storm of bullets and appear to like it as you have done today."

"Never mind that now," the Sheriff cut in. "We're going to get you out so you can do a little work for the state before you die."

"Say," Tommy exclaimed as the officers and prisoners started to climb the steep tunnel, "when you get to the top have one of the men start a big fire. I'm so hungry that I could eat my way out of this rock like it was cheese."

"What you going to cook?" asked Will.

"Bear steak," replied Tommy.

"That's a joke!" declared Chester.

"Joke is it?" exclaimed Tommy. "You wait till we get out there and see whether it is or not. I went out after bear steak for breakfast, didn't I? Well, I got it, didn't I?"

"Breakfast!" repeated George, rubbing his Stomach. "It must be afternoon, and I'm hungry enough to bite a corner off the Masonic Temple."

"One o'clock!" said Will, looking at his watch.

"Are you boys really going to cook breakfast in the cavern?" asked the sheriff. "Why not go to the camp?"

"Because we can't walk to camp without first acquiring sustenance!"

chuckled Tommy. "I'm empty from the top of my head to the end of my big toe!"

"If you'll ask your men to gather a lot of dry wood," George suggested, "we'll have a lot of bear steak ready to eat in about ten minutes."

"But we haven't got any salt!" objected the sheriff.

"Don't you think we haven't got any salt," Tommy replied. "You never saw a Boy Scout go out into the woods without plenty of salt and matches.

And don't you think we don't know how to build a fire with one match and broil a steak over coals in ten minutes."

"All right!" laughed the sheriff. "You boys seem to be able to take care of yourselves."

"You didn't seem to think so a few hours ago," Will answered.

"There's one thing about you boys I really like," the sheriff returned with a hearty laugh. "The third degree makes about as much impression on you as it would on the Sphinx or on the G.o.ddess of Liberty in New York harbor."

"That was the third degree, was it, then?" asked Will.

"Do you think I'd string up a lot of babies?" demanded the sheriff.

"Run along, now!" Tommy exclaimed. "Run along, Mr. Officer, and tell your men to bring up a lot of dry wood."

The officers made their way out, followed by George and Tommy, but Will and Chester still remained under ground.

"Did you hear anything in this tunnel?" asked Chester.

"I thought I did hear a moan, but the sheriff was talking in that voice of his at the time and I wasn't certain."

"Well," Chester said, "I believe father's in here somewhere."

"Why do you think that?"

"I've told you about how he wanted to move to this cavern, haven't I?

And how he spent considerable time here?"

"You certainly have."

"And about my suspicions that he informed the outlaws of the underground pa.s.sages?"

"Yes, you told me all that."

"Then you heard what the robbers said about some one having moved the stone, or gone in during their absence?"

"I had entirely forgotten that!" declared Will.

"Well, then, don't you see," Chester continued, "that they must have been speaking of father? That's why I think he's in here."

"Perhaps we'd better follow this channel and see if we can find him,"

Will suggested. "It does seem as if he might be here."

The bed of the old channel was very steep, and the boys scrambled up it with difficulty. After proceeding a few paces they heard a low groan and their flashlight showed the figure of a man lying on a narrow ledge of rock on the south side.

Chester darted forward instantly, almost falling on his face in his eagerness to reach his father and bent over the figure.

"It's father!" he shouted back to Will.

"Alive?"

"I'm afraid not."

Will lost no time in gaining the boy's side.