Young Wild West at "Forbidden Pass" Part 20

"Well, you couldn't have known just what you were doing or this wouldn't have happened."

Roche motioned toward the prisoners.

"It was a poor way for you to win out, this letting us get you and those others, I think," he added.

"Well, of course, I did not expect anything like this to happen," Wild answered, coolly. "That was a pretty good scheme your men put through when they got me. But let me tell you that my two partners have gone to get a crowd of miners to come here and clean, you out. They know just how to get in, for they have seen the curtain raised in front of the opening that leads in here. But they knew all about that last night, for I followed you here and saw you come in. I told them all about it, and they know just what to do now."

Cap Roche looked uneasy.

He did not relish the idea of the miners of Big Bonanza finding out about the cave.

And he was now pretty certain that they would.

The fact that he was known to be the leader of the outlaws made it impossible for him to go back to Silver Bend, too.

Though he had the best of Young Wild West just then, he knew he was in a very bad box.

"You have done well, Young Wild West," he said, trying to appear cool.

"You have done something that no one else has been able to do--you have found our cave and exposed the secret of it. I will admit that you have ruined our game here, but you don't suppose that you are going to live to enjoy telling about it, do you?"

"Oh, I don't know. I expect to live a long while, Cap Roche. I reckon you think as much of your life as I do of mine. If you should kill me you know very well that you would not live long after doing it. Your friends would never get a chance to do you a good turn, for you would never fall into the hands of the minions of the law. The only chance you have got is to make a deal that suits me. If you don't want to do that, do as you please."

Cap Roche got up and began pacing the rocky floor of the cave.

His uneasiness made his men feel in anything but a pleasant frame of mind.

Suddenly he paused in front of Wild and said:

"Let's hear your proposition."

"I would much rather you would make one," was the calm reply.

"Could you guarantee me three days to get away from Silver Bend if I agreed to let you go by paying the toll?"

"Yes, I could do that, I suppose."

"Well, I'll think it over."

"You had better think quickly then."

Cap Roche scowled.

"See here!" he exclaimed, turning to Hop and quickly severing his bonds.

"You go and tell Young Wild West's partners that I want all the money they can rake up, and as soon as you bring it to me you can all go free.

They are to fetch no one here, though. If they do I will kill Young Wild West, and then take the chances of a siege in the cave."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CLEVER CHINAMAN AT WORK.

Hop no sooner had his hands free than he said:

"You wantee me tellee lat ley mustee git tee velly muchee money, and len you lettee Young Wild West go?"

"Yes, that's it. You seem to understand pretty well for a Chinee. You understood enough to clean me out of a couple of hundred dollars last night, too. I reckon you had better give me that money and all the rest you have, before you go on your errand."

"Me velly solly," declared Hop, acting as though he really felt bad over it, "but me leavee allee my money in um camp."

This was a fact, too, as all he had with him was about five dollars in silver.

"I reckon I had better go through you," said the leader of the outlaws.

Hop quickly produced what money he had, and then held up his arms to let the man make a search of his clothing.

Roche went through him and brought out as many as half a dozen packs of cards, a flask of whisky, several little vials containing liquids and powders, two or three oblong objects that looked like a lot of paper pressed together, some black-looking cigars, a dead mouse, some colored string, and a lot of other small things, too numerous to mention.

But there was no money to be found.

"That's a nice lot of trash fur a galoot ter have in his pockets," he declared, looking at the pile in disgust. "What are you doing with a dead mouse in your pockets?"

"Me feel lat me might git tee hungly some time, and len me have lillee bite to eatee," replied Hop, looking very innocent.

The outlaws grinned at this.

They had all heard that Chinamen liked to eat rats, so they were not surprised to hear that one ate mice.

Even Wild smiled at the way Hop was working it.

He now believed that the chances of getting free from the outlaws were improving, for Hop would be apt to manage it in some way.

"I'll tell you what you do," said Roche, as Hop proceeded to put the articles back where they had been taken from. "You get your money at the camp and bring that here, too."

Allee light, Misler Outlaw, replied Hop. "You will havee um cigar?"

He tendered one and, taking it, the outlaw looked at it suspiciously and then cut off the end with his bowie knife.

Hop lighted one, too, and then he stood still.

"Me allee samee forgittee whattee you say," he said, as he looked puzzled.

Cap Roche went over it again.

"Oh, allee light. Me understand."

The cigar he had given the villain was a good one, and he puffed away at it with no little satisfaction, since it served to soothe his nerves somewhat.

Hop took occasion to drop the dead mouse in the pocket of the man who was standing at the side of Wild to prevent his possible escape, and then he turned to go.