Presently, however, the air began to grow fresher, and, uttering a cheer at this sign that they were near to daylight, the lads rushed forward. Still cheering, they emerged into a place where the passage broadened, and in another moment would have been out of the farther end of the tunnel but for an unexpected happening that occurred at that moment. Rob, who had been slightly in advance, gave the first warning of the new alarm. As the welcome daylight poured upon his face, and he gazed into a sort of cup-like valley beyond the passage mouth, he heard a sudden "z-i-ip!" past his ear, like the whizzing of a locust. The next instant fragments of rock scattered about his head and he heard a sharp report somewhere outside. Like a flash, the boy threw himself flat on his stomach and wriggled back into the tunnel. "They're firing at us!" cried Tubby. "Yes, but who?" demanded Merritt. "That's the question," was Rob's rejoinder. "I guess it must be Indians, but then, again, it may be hunters, who, having seen something move, fired. I'm going to try to find out." "Oh, Rob, be careful," begged Merritt. "That's all right. Here, Bill, lend me that long pole you've got." Bill Simmons obediently handed over a long branch he had broken off to use as a guiding staff, before they entered the dark passageway. Rob pulled off his sombrero and stuck it on the pole. Then he cautiously poked it out of the rocky portal. "Bang!" Rob drew in the hat and examined it. "Phew!" gasped Tubby. "That's a fine way to ventilate a fellow's lid." A bullet had bored a hole right through the soft gray crown. "Guess that's Indians, all right," said Harry; "nobody else would be able to shoot like that." "It is Indians," announced Rob. "I saw one dodge behind some brush when I looked out." "Well, what are we going to do?" gasped Charley, the younger of the Price brothers, a lad of about fourteen. His face grew long, and he began to whimper. "Hey, hush up, there," admonished Tubby. "Boy Scouts don't cry when they get in a difficulty; they sit down and try to figure some way out of it." "And, in this case, that is easy," said Rob. "Huh?" "I said it is easy. All we've got to do is to go back again." "What, without the candle? Make our way through that dark place?" "Of course. That is, if you don't want to get drilled full of holes by those Indian bullets." "But supposing they follow us?" "We'll have to take our chances on that," rejoined Rob. "Well, you're a cool hand, I must say. You calmly propose that we shall walk back through a dark tunnel, with Heaven knows how many Indians at our heels?" "It's all we can do, isn't it?" "Um-m-well, I suppose so. Come on, then, if we've got to do it, the sooner we start the better." "Wait one minute," said Rob, and, stooping down, he pulled up some dry brush that grew near the cave mouth. He piled this in a heap and set fire to it. "Whatever are you doing that for?" asked Tubby.