"These boys have done nothing to harm you, Cravath," protested
Mr. Phipps. "And no more have I. Mark me, you'll pay for this
indignity, and dearly too."
"You don't say?" sneered the miner.
"I suppose this is where you hide the ponies you have been stealing,"
said Phipps boldly, a sudden thought having come to him.
"Forward march!" roared the enraged miner.
"Not--not over the cliff--you--you can't mean it?" begged Phipps, his
face going suddenly pale.
"That's what I mean. You fellows are supposed to be buried in the
mine down there. It'll take 'em months to blast into the place where
they think you are, and when they reach the place you all will be gone
a long time."
Cravath laughed harshly.
"Come now, over you go, unless you prefer to stand there and take your
medicine."
"Hold on there a minute. I guess if anybody does the leap for life,
it'll be you that does it," shouted a voice behind the two desperate
men.
A second dynamite explosion could not have surprised them more. The
men wheeled like a flash.
From the shadow of the archway, through which they had just entered,
protruded a rifle barrel. The Pony Rider Boys who had also turned
sharply at the interruption, observed that the gun barrel had a
telescope attachment. Their eyes following further back, observed
something else, too.
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