Young Wild West kept slapping him on the face with the flat of his knife blade, and this was galling to the outlaw.

"What are you, a young fiend?" he cried, savagely, as he received a scratch on the neck, which he knew could have been his finish if the boy had so willed it.

"No," answered Wild; "I am simply a boy who has practiced this sort of business a great deal. Look, out for yourself, Cap! I am going to make you drop that knife!"

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the back of Wild's blade struck the villain's wrist.

Uttering a cry of pain, Roche dropped his weapon.

Then he staggered back and picked up a stone.

Crack!

One of the miners fired and the man reeled, and, letting go the stone, dropped to the ground, dead.

Our hero now went into the cave, for the twelve men who had survived were all tied hard and fast.

It was only natural that he should want to look around the cave, and one of the first things he came across was the paint that had been used to make the signs, or some just like it.

A brush was found, and he painted the following across the entire breadth of the curtain:

"Closed for Repairs--No More Toll Collected in the Pa.s.s!"

"I reckon that looks all right, don't it, boys?" he called out to the miners.

"You bet!" cried John Sedgwick. "Boys, give three cheers fur Young Wild West!"

The cheering echoed through the pa.s.s.

It was now near noon, but Wild was bent on doing the work he had in view, so he started in.

He sent the miners on with the prisoners, and then he painted a couple of signs to take the places of those at either end of the pa.s.s.

The signs when finished bore the words:

"Short Cut Pa.s.s--No danger!"

(Signed) "Young Wild West."

"There! I reckon as soon as we have put these up we will call the job complete," he said.

Not until they were up did our friends return to their camp.

There was a big time in Big Bonanza, as might be supposed.

A messenger had been sent over to Silver Bend to spread the news of the capture of the outlaw band, and, with the prisoners locked in a shanty, the miners danced around it in delight.

It was the middle of the afternoon when a crowd came over from Silver Bend, and then the prisoners were turned over to the Vigilantes who were with them.

Everybody was surprised when they heard that Cap Roche was dead, and that he had been the leader of the outlaws.

The next day Young Wild West and his friends left Big Bonanza.

They rode through the pa.s.s that had been forbidden to travelers unless they paid toll, and stopped at Silver Bend, for a day and night.

They received a big ovation there, and the next morning they set out for Arizona, where our hero had some business to attend to.

They all were willing to allow that it was one of the liveliest mornings they had ever put in when they went to Forbidden Pa.s.s, however.

But Arietta had paid the toll, so that was sufficient.

THE END.