"Quick! Everybody, back to the Big Tree!" he shouted, as he plunged into the cave, where our excited friends were still busily picking up the nuggets. "The robbers! They have got dad! Quick!" and he whirled about and rushed back. In an instant the gold was forgotten. Every man jumped for his rifle, which had been left near the entrance to the cave, and sprang after Rex, leaving the startled and frightened Mrs. Dickson to follow as best she could. There was not one of them but understood on the instant the seriousness of their peril. If the robbers secured their horses and supplies and held the entrance to Crooked Arm Gulch, they would be absolutely at their mercy; for, so far as they knew, the only way out of the gulch was by way of the Big Tree, and half a dozen men, armed with rifles, could hold this narrow opening against their most desperate efforts to get out, and in a few days, could starve them into surrender, for they had no food with them. They must at all costs, if it was not already too late, keep the entrance to Crooked Arm Gulch from falling into the hands of the robbers. Hammer Jones, by desperate efforts, reached the side of Rex, just as he was about to plunge into the passageway between Crooked Arm Gulch and Lot's Canyon; and one of his great hands closed down on the excited man's shoulder just in time to stop the reckless act. "Cautious! Cautious!" warned Ham, as he jerked Rex back. "If them skunks have got th' camp, 'twill be death to sot foot on that big limb." "But, dad--" "'Twon't help him none for you tew git killed. I'll take a look first," and the great strength of Ham forced Rex back, while he himself began cautiously, yet rapidly, crawling through the narrow opening. In a moment he had reached the limb of the Big Tree, and, carefully parting the branches so as to make no noise, he cautiously looked down. The camp had been pitched under the Big Tree almost directly beneath him; and the first look showed him everything apparently safe and undisturbed. The next look--and, with the cry: "Come on, everybody, as quick as th' Lord will let you," he sprang out on the limb and began working his way down the tree so recklessly that more than once he was in danger of falling. The moment he reached the ground he leaped toward an object that lay tightly bound up in a blanket on the ground near the trunk of the tree; and, with a swift hand began cutting the ropes that were tightly wound around it from head to foot, in a manner exactly similar to that in which they had found Mrs. Dickson on the night she had been so mysteriously bound in her tent. By the time Rex had reached his side he had uncovered Frank Holt, with his hands bound behind him and a gag in his mouth, but otherwise unhurt, except for a big lump on the back of his head. In a moment more Rex had pulled the gag out of his father's mouth and Ham had freed his hands.