“There’s one thing,” Carl went on, “and that is that the only clue which connects Mendosa and Phillips with the burglary of the Buyers’ Bank, and with the murder of the night-watchman, is in the possession of Mr. Havens. We can’t do very much until Havens comes.” “We can locate the men, can’t we?” asked Ben. “So far as the clue is concerned, that will be needed only at the trial. What the New York chief of police wants is for us to locate the murderers and turn our information over to the California officers.” “Anyway,” Carl insisted, “Mr. Havens was carrying a stone and a gold claw broken from a ring believed to have been worn by Mendosa on the night of the murder. The outlaws would go a long ways in order to secure possession of those articles. I’m getting frightened over Havens’ absence.” “Suppose Mendosa should destroy the ring?” asked Ben. “That would render the clue valueless, wouldn’t it?” “Indeed it wouldn’t!” answered Carl. “Mendosa is well-known to the police, and that ring was as well known to New York detectives as was the man’s face. I understand, too, that there are witnesses who saw Mendosa on the day following the burglary who noticed that one stone had disappeared from the ring, and that a claw had been broken off. Besides,” continued Carl, “Mendosa wouldn’t destroy that ring, or sell it, or give it away. He would lay it aside in some secure place until he could have the damage repaired. Mendosa is said to be foolish in the head like a fox!” “You’re some detective, I reckon!” laughed Ben. “What you ought to do is to connect with some newspaper reporter and write stories for the magazines. Perhaps you could get one printed!” “All right,” grinned Carl, “you can’t figure it out any other way. If the right steps are taken, and the stone and the claw are not stolen from Havens by agents of the outlaws, that ring will eventually convict the murderers of the night-watchman!” The boys talked for some moments, sitting on the hard, white sand at the side of the machines. They had collected quite a quantity of dry driftwood, and were now waiting for Jimmie to return from his excursion in search of a safe and convenient cook-room. “Look here, Ben,” Carl said in a moment, “we don’t want to go away and leave the machines, not even for a minute, not even if we are in a lonely spot, but some one ought to go and look for Jimmie. You know there’s a lot of places a boy might fall into in these mountain caverns!” “All right,” Ben said, rising from the ground, “I’ll go and wake Kit. He was so sleepy when I brought the _Bertha_ down that I lifted him out of the seat and laid him away against a wall! I don’t think he ever knew when I took him off the machine. I’ll give him a searchlight and send him to look after Jimmie.” “Where did you put him?” asked Carl, “I’ll go and wake him up.”