CHAPTER XVI
CULLEN LOSES HIS STAR
"So these are the detectives, are they?" asked one of the train robbers,as the two men crouched against the wall of the cavern.
"That's what they say!" answered Tommy.
"What were they doing to you?"
"They had us pinched."
"What for?"
"They said we belonged to your gang."
The bandit laughed hoarsely.
"To our gang?" he said. "The perfectly correct gentleman of the roadnever has a 'gang'. He believes thoroughly in the old theory that 'hetravels fastest who travels alone'."
"So they pinched you for being associates of ours, did they?" asked theother outlaw.
"That's what they said," replied Tommy.
"And that was the truth, too!" roared Katz.
"You seem to know all about these boys, and they know all about you.You've been seen at their camp, and one of the boys at the camp stole myproperty, too!" he went on with another roar of indignation.
"Chester stole his official star!" chuckled Tommy.
"That's a pious notion, too?" laughed the outlaw. "Have you got a star,too?" he asked, stepping up to Cullen. "If you have, hand it over. Idon't think you're fit to wear a police badge!"
Cullen handed his star over with a scowl, and the outlaw passed it toTommy. The boy put it in his pocket with a grin at the detective.
"Did you fellows have the nerve to come in here after us?" asked therobber.
"We came in after an escaped convict," was the reply.
"Did you get him?"
"Not yet, but we will get him."
"Well, I'd advise you both to go back home before the escaped convictcomes up and steals your necktie. You're not large enough to be outalone after dark."
"We're going to take that escaped convict back with us," Katz boasted."We'll get him if we stay here a year."
"We'll give you two days to get him," grinned one of the outlaws. "We'llturn you loose for two days. If you catch him in that time and get out,very well. If you don't catch him in that time, you'll get out anyhow.You stiffs are attracting altogether too much attention to this part ofthe country. It's getting so an honest train robber can't get a goodnight's sleep."
The outlaw pointed to the gulch below and motioned for the fellows tomove along. They started but looked back pleadingly.
"Can't we have our guns?" Katz asked.
"And our badges?" pleaded Cullen.
"No," replied the outlaw. "You might injure yourself with the guns, andthe badges are no good anywhere outside of Chicago. If you don't get outright now, we'll handcuff you to a tree and let the bears feed on you.You don't look good to us anyway."
"Look-a-here," Tommy said to the two outlaws as the detectivesdisappeared down the gulch. "Do you know that every person in the stateof Wyoming will be believing that we really belong to your crowd if thisthing keeps up? We're much obliged to you for bluffing the cowboys lastnight, and getting us out of the handcuffs just now, but you're gettingus into trouble just the same."
"Any time we get a chance to bluff an officer out of a captive, we'regoing to do it!" laughed one of the outlaws. "We're not asking youwhether you like it or not. We're pleasing ourselves in what we'redoing."
"And here's another thing," the other outlaw said, with something like ascowl. "We've got the idea that you wouldn't be doing as much for us aswe've been doing for you. The men who came in here to hunt us down maketheir headquarters at your camp. If you go back to your friends now,you'll tell them where you saw us, and describe everything that's takenplace. Therefore, we're not going to let you go back to your camp rightaway. You're going to be our guests for a time."
"What's the good of that?" demanded Tommy.
"That's our business," replied the outlaw.
"We'll never mention you to our crowd," George added.
"Anyway," the outlaw insisted, "it's safer for us to keep track of youtwo kids. I'd rather have a dozen Chicago sleuths after me than three orfour husky little Boy Scouts."
"Say," Tommy asked with a grin, "do you remember those plays where ashrinking maiden would be in the center of the stage one minute and begrabbed by the villain the next, and be grabbed back by the hero in thenext, and be grabbed back by the villain in the next, and be grabbedback by the hero for the final curtain?"
"I remember something like that," said the outlaw with a laugh.
"That's us!" grinned Tommy. "That's George and me! We're here to becaptured by cowboys, and bum detectives, and bearded train robbers, andI don't know what form our imprisonment will take next."
"When we get back to Chicago," George went on, whimsically, "we're goingto write up a story of our capture by two bold, bad men who gave theirnames as Red Mike of the Gulch and Daring Dan of the Devil's Dip orsomething like that."
"Say," Tommy cut in, "when you called those names out of the darknessyou certainly did have those detectives buffaloed!"
"You're a pair of nervy kids, anyway," laughed the outlaw.
"Oh, this is all right," laughed Tommy. "This will be one moreexperience. We've been chased by smugglers over the Pictured Rocks ofLake Superior, and we've been chased by alligators in the Everglades ofFlorida, and now we've been geezled by the bold, bad men who held up theUnion Pacific pay car."
"How do you know we did?" demanded one of the outlaws.
"That's the dope that's been coming to us right along."
"Well, come on," the other outlaw said rather impatiently. "We've got toget out of sight! We can't expect to remain in the open in broaddaylight without being seen by some one."
"Move along, boys," ordered the other.
"Where?" asked Tommy.
"Straight ahead."
"But where are you going to take us?"
"Oh, you'll know all about that soon enough," was the reply. "We've gota place over here where we can keep our friends in seclusion."
"It seems the place keeps you in seclusion," grinned George. "You'vebeen in here about as long as we have, and we've been captured numeroustimes and you've never been taken at all. But you'll get it up your neckone of these days," he added.
"When we're captured," one of the men said grimly, "it won't be by a lotof tin-horn detectives from Chicago."
They all walked along for some distance, and then Tommy turned back andfaced the two outlaws.
"If we've got far to go," he said, "I wish you'd stop in at some lunchcounter and order something to eat. I haven't had anything this morningonly wind sandwiches. I came out to get a piece of that bear meat forbreakfast, and I'm here yet."
"And I came out to hurry you up," George cut in, "and I'm here yet!"
"All right," laughed one of the outlaws, accepting the humor of therequest. "If we run across a free lunch sign anywhere, well take the twoof you in. We're hungry ourselves."
"Have you got anything to eat in this secluded retreat of yours?" askedTommy. "If you have, we'll hurry up."
"Not a thing!" was the reply.
"Then we'll walk slow!" declared George.
"Look here!" Tommy advised. "Why don't you go back and get some of thatbear steak. It's only a little way back to the Cave of the Three Bears,and there's enough meat there to last the four of us a week if we canonly keep it from spoiling."
"That's a bright idea," said one of the outlaws, stopping suddenly."Suppose we do go back and load up with fresh steak."
"I'm for it!" answered Tommy, rubbing his stomach.
They all walked back to the Cave of the Three Bears, and when they lefteach carried quite a load of fresh meat.
"Have you got a place to cook it?" asked Tommy.
"Have you got any coffee?" asked George.
"I think we'll have to let you boys go pretty soon," one of the outlawsgrinned. "If we don't you'll be apt to eat us out of house and home."
"We're some on the eat!" Tommy announced.
After a time the four came, without further incident, to the chain ofcaverns which Will and Ch
ester had entered some time before.
They paused for a moment in the connecting tunnel, where the fire hadbeen built on the previous night, and inspected the boulder, which lay ashort distance from the opening to the dry channel.
"He's been here and gone on in," one of the outlaws said.
"Perhaps some one else has been here," the other suggested.
"The man who showed us where to enter this labyrinth is the only man inthe mountains who knows anything about it!" declared the other. "I'm notcertain that we didn't leave the stone out of place when we left thismorning. But, if we didn't, our friend is certainly down stairs at thisminute! I'll drop down and see, anyway!"
"Push the boys in first," advised the other.
"What do you think of this for an elevator?" demanded Tommy as he backedinto the opening. "These fellows seem to be foolish--like a fox!"
George followed Tommy into the tunnel as the latter dropped down, andthen the figure of one of the outlaws blocked the opening.
For only a minute, however, for the boys heard a succession of pistolshots, and then the sound of voices rang into the cavern they had justleft.
The next instant the outlaws crowded into the tunnel, but instead ofdropping down, waited near the entrance, weapons in hand.