Suddenly there was a sound in front. Something
scrambled over the rocks. Walter shut off the
lamp and they saw daylight ahead of them.
“See here! Here he is!” shouted the
boy, hurrying on. “What did I tell you?”
There was more scrambling of hoofs, and then a shrill
squeal—surely the noise made by a horse!
Hess and the girls following, Walter came to the circular
place to which the tunnel led. They all saw what
Walter saw. For once Hesitation Kane was surprised
into expressing himself suddenly:
“It’s the black outlaw or I’m a
dodo!”
TREASURE-TROVE
Hesitation Kane was not a dodo, for nobody could deny
that the trembling and snorting creature standing
on the other side of this open hole was the beautiful
wild stallion that had followed the range horses down
from the hills more than a week before.
But such a pitiful looking creature as he was now!
The girls expressed their pity for him without stint.
Not that he was marred, or seriously injured in any
way. But he was so weak from hunger that he could
scarcely stand.
It was plain that a few shrubs and some bunch grass
had grown in the bottom of this hole. He had
eaten them down to the very roots, and then dug the
roots up with his hoofs and chewed them.
Tom Collins’ story of how he had chased the
stallion and the creature had so suddenly disappeared,
was now explained. The horse had slipped into
the hole in the gulch above, just as the pack horse
had. Only the wild horse had slid clear to the
bottom of the funnel-shaped hole.
The outcropping ledge hid this opening which was at
the level of the caves. Nobody could see the
imprisoned horse from above. That, the searching
party well knew.
“And to think that he might have starved to
death here,” murmured Grace.
“Can you get him and tame him, Mr. Kane?”
asked Bess Harley.
“But he should be Walter’s horse,”
put in Nan Sherwood, earnestly. “Walter
has felt all the time that he was here and that it
was he that made the noise that scared us so.”
“Of course this is the source of that cry we
heard,” Rhoda admitted. “When we
led the ponies into the big cave that day, he heard
them, and they knew he was here. I believe I haven’t
much sense, girls, after all. I should have known
it was another horse squealing.”
“I was sure of it last night,” said Walter,
“when he squealed after Frank drove in the stock.”
“Well, daddy is fair,” Rhoda declared.
“When he learns all about it he will decide
who is to have the horse. Of course, he was originally
the property of the Long Bow Ranch and that brand is
on him now. But daddy will fix it right.”
“Say!” suddenly cried Bess, “did
this party start out from Rose Ranch to hunt wild
horses? I—should—say—not!
We are after treasure—”
