At this the big guide let out a rough laugh.

“Aint got no use fer them critters, eh?”

“I have not.”

“’Taint likely there are any b’ars around.  Me an Jim Wister cleaned out the hole last spring—­got three on ’em.  No new b’ars will take that hole yet awhile.”

“Then we had better make tracks for it at once—­before Dick Rover and the man who is with him get on our trail.”

They walked back to the camp-fire and, calling Jasper Grinder and Lemuel Husty aside, Baxter explained the situation.  A talk, lasting several minutes, followed.

“Now then, you come with us,” said Dan Baxter to the Rovers.  “And see to it that you don’t try to get away.”

“Where do you want us to go?” asked Tom.

“We are going to try to find your brother,” was the bully’s smooth reply.

“Humph!  Do you expect us to believe that?”

“You can suit yourself, Tom Rover.  But, just the same, you’ll come along.”

“And if we refuse?” put in Sam.

“I’ll hammer you into submission.”

“By jinks! but you always were a cheerful brute, Baxter,” cried Sam.

“Shut up and come along,” growled the bully.

Feeling it would be folly to resist, the two Rovers moved off with the party.  The big guide led the way and the others followed.

“You may as well earn your salt,” observed Baxter.  “Here, take hold and pull one of the sleds.”

He placed the rope in their hands and compelled them to haul the load, which they did unwillingly enough.

Curious as it may seem, none of the Baxter party had given a thought to the sled which Sam and Tom had had with them, and this had been left under the bushes at the spot where Husty had discovered the Rovers.

At first Tom and Sam had thought to speak about the matter, but they finally decided it would be better to run the risk of losing that portion of the outfit entirely than to place it in the hands of their enemy.

The way was rough, and it was only with the greatest of difficulty that they could drag the sleds along.  But less than half an hour brought them to the spot which Bill Harney had in mind—­a grand and wild place, where the mountain appeared to split in two for a distance of several hundred feet.  Here there was a gorge fifty or sixty feet deep, partly choked with small scrub cedars.

“There’s the hole,” said Harney, advancing into the gorge and pointing with his hand.

“Better go ahead and see if it is free of bears or other wild animals,” suggested Dan Baxter, as he came to a halt.

Rifle in hand the guide went into the opening, and made a thorough examination of the surroundings.

“Aint been no b’ars nor nothin’ else here,” he declared.  “You can come right in.”

The opening on one side of the gully was an irregular one, and beyond this was a large cave having several chambers.  All was pitch dark in the inner chambers, and they lit some brushwood to give them light.  Then a regular fire was started, which did much toward making the surroundings warmer and more cheerful.