"Too bad, Sam. They are a set of brutes."
"Don't call me a brute, Rover," growled Jasper Grinder. "Neither you nor your brother have all you deserve."
Sam was bound with a rope, and then both prisoners were told to walk over to the fire. This they did, and were left in charge of Husty and Jasper Grinder, while Baxter went off a distance, in company with big Bill Harney.
"Well, what do you want to do with 'em?" demanded Harney, when he and the bully were out of hearing of the others. "'Pears to me you've taken the law in yer own hands."
"I'm glad I've caught them," returned Dan Baxter. "They may help us to find what I am after."
"Think they've got a better map nor yours?"
"They may have."
"Supposing that brother comes up, with John Barrow? They may make it hot for us."
"That's what I want to ask you about, Harney. Isn't there some place around here where we might hide the prisoners? A cave, or something like that?"
The big guide scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"There's a tolerable place about quarter of a mile from here—the old B'ars' Hole, we use ter call it."
"Of course we don't want to run up against
