It was Thad who uttered this low hiss of warning. His action was prompt in addition, for raising the lantern, he gave one sturdy puff, causing the flame to vanish. Utter darkness surrounded them. Aleck had dropped the leg of the big wolf, and drew back the hammer of his rifle. "Perhaps it was the other cub, Thad?" he whispered, as softly as the night wind creeps in and out of the trees, caressing each leaf as it passes on. "No, it sounded more like voices!" came the equally low reply. "Voices! Oh! do you mean men may be near us?" gasped Aleck, a cold chill passing over him at the dreadful prospect of losing his long-sought patrimony just after finding it. "It sounded like that Kracker; listen, and we'll soon know," Thad went on to say; and crouching there, the two boys waited for a repetition of the suspicious sound. CHAPTER XXV. CLOSE TO DISCOVERY. When the sound of the voice came again even Aleck heard it plainly. Why, it seemed so very near that his first thought was that the men must have found the entrance to the treasure cave, and were pushing along the tunnel at that very moment. But on reflection Aleck realized that this could not be so, for the voice came from somewhere in the open air. "I jest ain't agoin' any further, an' that's a fact. Might as well rest up right here as keep on. I never was for comin' back, to spy on them ere scouts, but two agin one kerried the day. So here we be, tired in body, hungry, and nigh 'bout ready to drop. I say let's camp, and wait till mornin'." "That's Dickey Bird," whispered Thad in the ear of his companion. Aleck had had a load taken from his breast. Although the three men might be so close to the entrance of the mine that they could toss a stone into it, still it seemed only mere accident that brought them here, and not design, or a suspicion as to the truth. Another voice chimed in now, that of Kracker himself. "Oh! as for that, I'm about as leg weary as you can be; and ready to rest up a bit. So Waffles, stir around, and gather some tinder to start a blaze. This night air is some cool, too. And say, I'm that hungry I could eat anything 'most. But with only one six-shot gun in the crowd, it's going to be hard lines to provide grub, I reckon." "Then why'd you turn back, when we was all started for a place where we could git all the eats we wanted, with money to pay for 'em?" grumbled Dickey Bird. "Why? Any fool could see that," retorted the big prospector, sternly. "Here I've been looking for this mine years and years, and it's got to be the one dream of my life to find the same. That boy knows; he's just been waitin' till he growed up big enough to start out. You saw how he acted, and said he'd die before he'd give up what belonged to his mother. That proves he's got the combination, either in his head, or somewhar about his clothes, which we couldn't find."