THE HALF-BREED

But the way out was not to lie through undiscovered passages!  It was set by fate that it was to be over the dead body of the half-breed!

While the boys discussed the possibility of finding an unguarded exit from the series of caverns, another shot sounded, and then they heard the rattle and crash of rocks falling upon an equally hard surface.

“There’s something doing, now, sure!” Tommy exclaimed.

“Do you know of any other trappers in this section?” asked Will, turning to Thede.  “It seems to me that that shot came from outside, and I don’t believe Pierre would be throwing down his own barricade.”

“I haven’t seen anyone else here,” replied the boy, “except the one we saw in front of the fire last night.”

“And that might have been Pierre, for all we know!” Tommy declared.

“You don’t know whether it was Pierre or some one else,” Sandy observed, “so we don’t know whether there’s another hunter roaming around here or not!  I hope there is, so far as I’m concerned!”

The question was settled in a moment.  Rocks continued to fall from the barrier, and in a moment a voice called out: 

“Who’s there?”

“Four of us!” was the reply.

“Why don’t you come out?”

The boys detected a faint chuckle in the voice.

“We’re willing!” Sandy answered.

“Well, come on, then!”

Sandy stuck his head out of the entrance and turned his searchlight on the new-comer.  After a moment’s inspection of the fellow, he stepped into the outer cavern.

“You look pretty good to me,” he said.

Ho was about to say more when he caught sight of the body of the half-breed lying just inside the cave.

He turned white and for a moment felt dizzy and faint.

He was unfamiliar with death in any form, and this snuffing out of a life seemed to him particularly horrible.

In a moment the other boys came out and stood looking down upon the body.  They were all deeply affected by what had taken place, particularly Thede, who had never received anything but the kindest treatment from the half-breed until the arrival of the Boy Scouts.

“It was my life or his,” Antoine explained.

“Did he shoot at you?” asked Will, “we heard only one shot, save the one fired by Pierre at my hat.”

“He didn’t get an opportunity to fire!” Antoine answered.  “He had his gun leveled at my head when my bullet ended his life!”

“Now I wonder,” thought Will, “whether it was Pierre who sat by the fire last night, and whether the secret of the Little Brass God dies with him!  I wish there were some way of knowing.”

While these thoughts were passing through the brain of the boy, Thede stood regarding the new-comer in a puzzled way.  Slowly the impression was forming in his mind that it was not Pierre who had sat before the fire in the chamber where the Little Brass God had been displayed.