“It’s not a bad idaa,” assented the Irishman.  “Pick yours out, and then we’ll turn the others loose.”

“Why will you do that?”

“What’s the use of laving them here?  Them spalpeens will find their way out of the cave before long, and then they will strike straight for these animals, and, if they happen to get out pretty soon, they’ll make trouble with us.  We might as well let ’em walk awhile.”

“How are they going to get out?”

“Didn’t ye lave the lasso hanging down into the cave?”

“I declare, I never thought of that!” exclaimed the affrighted lad.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

And he started to repair the oversight, when Mickey caught his arm and checked him.

“Not so, me son; lave it as it is.  If we should go away and lave the spalpeens down there without the rope, they might never find the way out, and would starve to death, and it would always grieve me to think I had starved six Apaches to death, instead of affording meself some enjoyment by cracking ’em over the head wid a shillelah.”

“I should be sorry to do that,” replied Fred, who comprehended the cruelty of leaving the poor fellows to perish, as they were likely to do if left without the means of escape; “but, if we leave the rope hanging there, the whole party will be up here before we can get out of the way, and then what shall we do?”

“Niver fear, niver fear,” said Mickey, with a wave of his hand and a magisterial shake of the head.  “The spalpeens have got enough of climbing up there for a while.  They’ve gone off on a hunt through the cavern for the place where you crawled out, and they’ll kaap at that till morning, and then, if there’s no show for ’em, they’ll come back, and begin to fool around the rope again.”

The lad had little difficulty in deciding upon his steed, which was a coal-black mustang, lithe and willowy, and apparently of a good disposition, although that was necessarily a matter of conjecture, for the present.  There were no saddles upon any of the horses, and nothing but the rudest kind of bridle, consisting of a thong of twisted bull’s hide, and reaching away to some limb or tree, so as to give the animal plenty of grazing area.  The lariats of the other four were cut—­so that, when they arose, they would find themselves at liberty to go whither they chose—­after which the two approached their respective prizes and prepared to mount.

Both were good riders, although, being compelled to go it bareback, they felt some misgivings as to the result.  Fred’s mustang was rather under size, so that he was able to vault upon him from the ground without difficulty.  After patting him on the neck and speaking soothingly to him, with a view to disarming him of all timidity, the lad leaped lightly upon his back.

The steed showed at once that he did not like this familiarity, and reared and plunged and shook his head in a vicious way, but he toned down somewhat after a time, and seemed disposed to compromise matters until he learned something about his rider.