"Did you not claim to be our uncle?" asked Julian.

"Uncle!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jack. "Great Scott!"

Claus did not attempt to deny this. Bob and Jake were almost within reach of him, and they looked hard at him to see what he would say, and he was afraid to affirm that there was no truth in the statement for fear of something that might happen afterward. He glanced at the boys, who were looking steadily at him, and Jack moved a step or two nearer to him with his hands clenched and a fierce frown on his face, all ready to knock him down if he denied it; so Claus thought it best not to answer the question at all.

"You won't think it hard of me if I hit him a time or two?" asked Jack.

"Come here and behave yourself," said Julian, walking up and taking Jack by the arm. "I think, if the truth was known, he is in a worse fix than we are."

"But he claims to be my uncle!" exclaimed Jack.

The tone in which these words were uttered, and Jack's anger over the claim of relationship, caused Bob and Jake to break out into a roar of laughter.

"We'll take your word for it," said Bob, as soon as he could speak; "but we can't waste any more time here. Follow along after me, and Jake will bring up the rear."

Bob at once set off to the spot where they had left their provisions, and, having picked them up, led the way down the almost perpendicular side of the ravine until they reached the bottom. Now and then he would look over his shoulder at Jack, who was following close behind him, and would break into another peal of laughter.

"So you didn't want that fellow to claim relationship with you?" said he. "Well, I don't blame you. He has done nothing but tell us one pack of lies after another ever since we met him. The only thing that had the least speck of truth in it was that we should find you here at the haunted mine."

This remark was made in a low tone, so that it did not reach the ears of Claus, who was following some distance behind. If Claus had not seen already that he was in a "fix," he ought to have seen it now.

"Now, perhaps you wouldn't mind telling us what you are going to do with us," Jack ventured to say, in reply.

"Well, the men there at Dutch Flat are hot on our trail now," a.s.serted Bob.

"How do you know that?"

"Because our mule got away from us when we tried to shove him over the bluff. We wanted to destroy everything we had that we could not carry on our backs, but he got away from us. Banta warned us against coming up here, and we fooled him by making him believe we were going straight down to Denver; but he will be after us now. If he comes, he had better take us unawares; that's all."

"We don't want to see that fight," remarked Jack. "You'll let us go before that comes off?"

"Oh, yes; when we get you so deep in the mountains that you can't find your way back readily, why, then we'll let you go. If you behave yourselves, you won't get hurt."

Bob led the way at a more rapid pace when they reached the bottom of the gorge, jumping from rock to rock, and climbing over fallen trees that lay in their road, and Jack followed his example. He knew that Bob was making the trail more difficult to follow, but it was done in order to keep out of argument with his charge; for Bob often stopped, whenever he came to a place that took some pains to get over, and saw that those who were following him left no tracks behind them.

"There!" said Bob, pulling off his hat and looking back at the way they had come; "I reckon Banta will find some trouble in tracking us up here. I am hungry, and we'll stop here and have something to eat."

After they had satisfied their appet.i.tes they took a little time to rest, and then set off again at a more rapid pace than ever. It was almost dark when they stopped to camp for the night. The boys were tired, and they showed it as soon as they had disposed of their bacon and hard-tack by wrapping their blankets about them and lying down to sleep, with their feet to the fire. Their slumber was as sound as though they were surrounded by friends instead of being in the power of those who had robbed them of their hard-earned wealth.

It seemed to them that they had scarcely closed their eyes when they were awakened by the sound of footsteps moving about, and threw off their blankets in time to see Bob cutting off a slice of bacon. It was as dark as pitch in the woods, and the boys did not see how Bob was to find his way through them.

"It will be light enough by the time we have our breakfast eaten,"

said he, in response to the inquiry of Julian. "You have a watch with you. What time is it?"

Julian had a watch with him, it is true, but he had been careful how he drew it out in the presence of Bob and Jake. It had no chain attached to it, and the boy was not aware that Bob knew anything about it; but he produced the gold timepiece and announced that it was just five o'clock. This was another thing over which Julian had had an argument with Jack, who believed that, with the money he had at his disposal, he ought to have the best watch that could be procured, and, in spite of Jack's arguments, he had purchased the best American patent lever he could find. Jack's watch was an ordinary silver one, and he said that by it he could tell the time when dinner was ready as well as he could by a good timepiece.

"Do you want this watch?" asked Julian, because he thought the man who would steal his money would not be above stealing his watch also.

"Oh, no," replied Bob, with a laugh; "you can keep that. I wanted your money, and, now that I have it, I am satisfied."

By the time breakfast was cooked and eaten there was light enough to show them the way, and Bob once more took the lead. There was no trail to guide them--nothing but the gully, which twisted and turned in so many ways that Julian almost grew heart-sick when he thought of finding his way back there in company with Jack. More than once he was on the point of asking Bob if he did not think they had gone far enough, but the man had been so friendly and good-natured all the time that he did not want to give him a chance to act in any other way. So he kept with him during that long day's tramp, looking into all the gullies he crossed, and once or twice he slyly reached behind him and pulled down a branch of an evergreen that happened to come in his way.

"That's the way our women used to do in old Revolutionary times when they were captured and wanted to leave some trail for their rescuers to follow," soliloquized Julian; "but Bob doesn't take any notice of it."

"Well, I reckon we'll stop here for the night," remarked Bob, when it got so dark that he could scarcely see. "This is as far as we shall ask you to go with us, Julian. I suppose you are mighty glad to get clear of us."

"Yes, I am," a.s.sented Julian, honestly. "If you will give us what you have in your pockets, you can go your way and we will make no attempt to capture you."

"Oh, we couldn't think of that! You have wealth enough to keep you all your lives, and I have struggled for ten years to gain a fortune, and to-day I have just got it."

"What would you do if somebody should catch you along the trail, somewhere? You would come in for a hanging, sure."

"Don't you suppose we know all that? It is a good plan for you to catch your man before you hang him. We have two revolvers apiece, and you know what that means."

"You don't count Claus worth anything, then," remarked Jack.

"Eh? Oh, yes, we do," exclaimed Bob, who wondered what Claus would think of him for leaving him out entirely. "But Claus is not used to this sort of business, you know. He could make a noise, and that is about all he could do."

"We know we should come in for a hanging if those fellows at Dutch Flat should ever get their hands on us, but when they do that we'll be dead. You need not think we are going to stay in this country, where everybody has got so rich, and we be as poor as Job's turkey all the while. We have just as good a right to be rich as they have."

When Jake got to talking this way it was a sure sign that he was rapidly getting toward a point which Bob called "crazy." He was always mad when he spoke of others' wealth and his own poverty; and the boys, who were anxious to get him off from that subject, began their preparations for supper. They were glad to know they had gone far enough with the robbers to insure their escape, and they were disposed to be talkative; but they noticed that Claus was more downhearted than he had ever been. He lit his pipe, leaned back against a tree, and went off into a brown study.

"I suppose he'll get a portion of the money that was stolen from us,"

said Jack, in a low tone.

"No, he won't," answered Julian in the same cautious manner. "He has been promised some of that money, but I'll bet you he don't get a cent of it. He is here in these fellows' power, and they'll take what they please out of him."

The boys, although as tired as they were on the previous day, were not by any means inclined to sleep. In fact they did not believe they had been asleep at all until they heard Bob moving around the fire. It was five o'clock by Julian's watch, and his first care was to find out what had become of Claus, who lay m.u.f.fled up, head and ears, in his blanket; but he would not have stayed there if he knew what was going to happen to him during the day.

"Now perhaps you will be good enough to tell us what route we have to travel in order to get out of here," said Jack.

"Have you a compa.s.s with you?" asked Jake.

No, the boys had none; they did not think they would need one when they were surrounded by friends who knew the woods, and consequently they had not brought one with them.

"You know which way is east, don't you? Well, place your backs to the sun, and keep it there all the time. Dutch Flat lies directly west of here."

"That will be good if the sun shines all the time," said Julian. "But if it goes under a cloud--then what?"

"Then you will have to go into camp, and stay until it comes out again," replied Bob. "But at this time of the year you have nothing to fear on that score. Are you going already? Well, good-bye. Why don't you wish us good luck with that money we took from you?"

"Because I don't believe it will bring you good luck," said Jack. "We worked hard for it, and we ought to have it. I wish you good-bye, but I don't wish you good luck."

"Shake hands with your uncle, why don't you?" asked Bob.

"Not much!" returned Jack. "If that money doesn't bring him some misfortune I shall miss my guess."

Julian and Jack shouldered the blankets which contained the few provisions they had left, plunged into the thicket, and were out of hearing in a few minutes. The robbers sat by the fire without making any effort to continue their journey, and presently Bob turned his eyes upon Claus.