Jack and Frank heard the cry of terror as the boy disappeared and closed their eyes to shut out the horrible sight which they believed to be due the next instant.
“I would suggest,” Gilroy remarked, as the boys stood in front of the barrier looking anxiously out in every direction, “that you prepare a bit of luncheon. I must confess that this mountain air gives me an appetite, and I had a light breakfast, you know.”
“All right,” Jimmie replied. “I’ll build a fire, put on the big kettle and make a bear stew that will put an inch of fat on your ribs.”
“A bear stew?” repeated Gilroy, holding up his white hands in horror.
“You don’t mean to say that the ferocious creatures known as bears are served as food in this outrageous country, do you?”
“Certainly!” laughed Jimmie. “The bear is the noblest work of God when it comes to making a stew.”
“I couldn’t eat bear stew, indeed I couldn’t,” gasped Gilroy.
“All right,” Jimmie said, “then we’ll cook you some eggs.”
The boy set to work preparing the stew. The larder was well stocked with provisions, and he had plenty of vegetables and rice to use, so in a couple of hours he had a great kettle bubbling fragrantly over the fire. Gilroy was supplied with eggs and soda biscuit.
Leaving the confidential clerk munching his supper and looking about for bears, Ned and Jimmie walked around the corner of rock and stood looking over the fast-darkening landscape.
“I’ll tell you what it is,” Jimmie said, at length. “Those boys are in trouble somewhere. It’s an even bet that they’ve been geezled by the ginks that grabbed us.”
“Look here,” Jimmie went on, in a moment. “I know the way to that old mission place. I could find my way there in the dark of the moon blindfolded. Now suppose I sneak over and see if there’s any trace of the boys there or thereabouts?”
“We’d better wait a short time,” Ned answered. “The outlaws in the subterranean rooms will naturally be doubly watchful after our sensational escape, and so we’d better wait until along in the night.”
“They may not be there at all,” Jimmie finally said. “They may be just lost in the mountains.”
“I don’t think they would really get lost,” Ned decided.
While the boys talked around the angle of rock, a shrill cry followed by a pistol shot came from the camp.