“Left George?” repeated Tommy.

“I couldn’t bring him with me,” answered Thede, with a slow smile,

“Where did you leave him?” demanded Tommy.

“Why didn’t he come with you?” asked Sandy.

“Because,” replied Thede, “just as he was reaching up to the wall of the cavern to take hold of the Little Brass God, he got a tunk on the coco that put him out for the count.”

“What do you know about the Little Brass God?” asked Tommy.

“I’ve seen it!” answered Thede.  “It sat up on a shelf on the face of the wall, with its legs crossed, and its arms folded, and its wicked face telling me where I could go whether I wanted to or not.”

“I guess something’s gone to your head!” declared Sandy.

“But I’ll tell you we found the Little Brass God!” declared Thede.  “George came to the cabin, and we started out to find the camp, and got lost in the storm, and brought up in a cave inhabited by two bears.”

Sandy regarded Tommy significantly.

“And we found a basement floor to the cavern, and went down the elevator and found a man asleep in front of a fire with the Little Brass God winking at him.  Funny fellow, that Little Brass God!”

“You for the foolish house!” cried Tommy.

“Honest, boys!” Thede declared.  “George came to the cabin and I started home with him after Pierre left us alone together.  The storm chased us into a cave, just as I told you, and we kept on going until we came to the place where the Little Brass God sat up on the wall making faces at a man asleep at the fire.’”

“Go on!” exclaimed Tommy, at last understanding that the boy was in his right mind.  “Tell us about it!”

“And George said he would get the Little Brass God without waking the man up.  So he gave me his gun, and I was to shoot in case the man made any trouble.  Then, just as George was reaching for the little Brass God, the man woke up and shot at him, Then the man shot at me, and I shot at him, and then he got my gun away from me and I ran out to find you.”

“And you left George there in the cavern?” asked Sandy.

“I just had to!” was the reply.  “I couldn’t do anything with that giant of a half-breed, and I didn’t have a gun and so I ducked.

“Can you take us back to that cavern now?” asked Tommy.

“Sure I can,” was the reply.

“Oughtn’t we to let Will know where we are?” asked Sandy.

Tommy looked at Thede questioningly.

“Can you tell us how to find the cavern?” he asked in a moment.

“What for?” demanded the boy.  “I’m going to take you where it is.”

“You’re about all in,” declared Sandy, “and you ought to go to camp and rest up and tell Will where we’ve gone.”

“You couldn’t find this cave in a thousand years,” declared Thede.

While the boys talked the wind died down, and the snow ceased falling.