“I allers heard that was a dangerous game!” remarked the former phantom simply.  “Well, now you’ve got me, what are you going to do with me?”

“Take you where we can have a good look at you,” replied Mr. Jenks, as he kicked aside the wooden framework, and the sheet which had made the “ghost” appear so tall.  “So this is how you worked it; eh?”

“Yep.  That was the ‘haunt’ stranger.  I made it myself, and it worked all right until you folks come along.  I rather suspicioned from the first, when I played the trick over on ’tother side of the mountain, that you wouldn’t be so easy to fool as most prospectors are.”

“Oh, so you’re the only ghost then?” asked Tom.

“I’m the only one.”

By this time they had reached the camp.  Tom threw some light logs on the fire, which blazed up brightly.  As the flames illuminated the face of their captive, Mr. Jenks looked at him, and cried out: 

“Why it’s Bill Renshaw!”

“That’s me,” admitted the man who had played the part of the phantom, “and thunder-turtles! if it ain’t Mr. Jenks who was once in the diamond cave with us.  Whatever happened to you?  I never heard.  The others said you got tired and went away.”

“They took me away—­defrauded me of my rights!” declared Mr. Jenks, bitterly.  “But I’ll get them back!  To think of Bill Renshaw playing the part of a ghost!”

“They made me do it,” went on the man, somewhat dejectedly.  “I wanted to be at work in the cave, but they wouldn’t let me.”

“Is this man one of the diamond makers?” asked Tom, in great surprise.

“He is—­one of the helpers, though I don’t believe he knows the secret of making the gems,” explained Mr. Jenks.  “He was one of the men in the cave when I was there before, and he and I struck up quite a friendship; didn’t we, Renshaw?”

“That’s what, and there ain’t no reason why we can’t be friends now; that is unless you hold a grudge against me for firing at you.  But I only shot in the air, to scare you away.  Them’s my instructions.  I’m supposed to be on guard, and scare away strangers.  I’m tired of the work, too, for I don’t get my share, and those other fellows, in the cave, get all the money from the diamonds.”

Tom Swift uttered an exclamation.  A sudden plan had come to him.  Quickly he whispered to Mr. Jenks: 

“Make a friend of this man if possible.  He evidently is dissatisfied.  Offer him a sum to show us another way into the cave, and we may yet discover the secret of the diamond makers.”

“I will,” declared Mr. Jenks, quietly.  Then, turning to Renshaw, he added: 

“Bill, come over here.  I want to have a talk with you.  Perhaps it will be to our mutual advantage.”

He led the former phantom to one side, and for some time conversed earnestly with him.  Mr. Jenks told the story of how he had been deceived by Folwell and the others who were at the head of the gang of diamond makers.  The rich man related how they had taken his money, and, after promising to disclose the secret process to him, had broken faith, and had drugged him, afterward taking him out of the cave.