“And you say that you have not been disturbed at all during your occupancy of the place?” Antoine continued.

“Now I wonder how much this fellow knows,” Will asked himself while Antoine stood gazing curiously down upon him.  “I wonder if he knows about the people who came there that night?  He seems to have a suspicion that some person is wandering about the country, and keeping pretty well out of sight.  I wish I knew how much he knows.”

“Oh, we have slept all right,” he finally said, in reply to the man’s question.  “A mess of healthy boys will sleep under the noise of battle!”

“I ask these questions,” Antoine said directly, “because I have seen strange foot-prints in the snow at different times, and it seems to me that some person or persons are skulking through the woods and, for some reason known only to themselves, keeping out of sight of honest men.”

“He knows all about that affair at the cabin,” Will concluded.  “Now,” he went on, “I wonder why he’s so very much interested in these strangers, whoever they are?”

“Oh, come on!” Tommy exclaimed.  “Don’t stand here all day!  We’ve got to get back to the cabin before it gets too dark to make our way through the woods.”

The two boys took a couple of steps forward at a venture, without knowing whether Antoine would oppose their leaving the cavern.

“Well,” he said, as he stepped to one side, “if you boys see any strangers loitering about, I wish you’d let me know.”

The two lads amazed departed without making any promise, but they did not at once turn in the direction of the cabin.  Instead, they plunged through the snow in a southerly direction, after seeing that Antoine had gone the other way.

“Where are you headed for now?” asked Tommy.

“Just wandering about on general principles,” replied Will, at the same time turning into one of the eaves belonging to the system of underground passages.  “Thought I’d look in here first!”

The lads entered the cavern as noiselessly as possible and looked guardedly about.  A great heap of furs lay on the floor, and two figures rested upon them apparently lost in slumber.

Tommy pointed to the modern shoes on the feet of one of the sleepers.  Then he silently called attention to the bloody bandage wrapped about the man’s head.  He looked at Will inquiringly.

“Do you suppose,” he whispered, “that these, fellows are here after the Little Brass God, too?”

The men seemed willing to answer the question for themselves, for they sprang to their feet and glared at the intruders angrily.

One of the men was dressed as a trapper, although he did not look the part.  He was tall and angular, with sharp features and keen black eyes.

His companion was shorter, but equally slender.  His eye orbits were small and oval in shape, his face was a dusky brown, and there was, somehow, about the man an atmosphere of the Orient.