And in their tracks sped the two chums. Chet and Dig were both eager and curious. They saw the bewhiskered and long-armed Tony Traddles staggering along the rough trail over the hill, occasionally turning to shake his hairy fist in the direction of the mine. He was probably muttering threats, too, against the mine and its owners. The boys had taken a shorter path over the rise; besides, they were running. But the miners who had been associated with Tony had got over the hill first. They were hidden in the chaparral on the edge of the trail Tony was following, and when he came down the slope they sprang out and surrounded him. Chet and Digby could not hear what was said at first; but Tony began to show fight almost at once. He was no coward. The miners rushed in on him, tied his wrists together, and amid a great deal of noise and some laughter, hoisted him upon a fence-rail which four of them carried on their shoulders. His ankles were then triced together. His helplessness made him ridiculous. “Oh, bully!” cried Dig, in delight. “That serves him right!” “I wish they hadn’t done it,” said Chet. “They’re going to ride him over the mountain.” “Sure they are! And they are going to warn him not to come back,” said Dig. “Serves him just right, I tell you.” “But suppose he does something to get square?” breathed Chet, much excited as well as anxious. “Pooh! what could he do?” returned Dig. “He may as well go out and hunt for that big buffalo he was telling us about. I don’t believe Tony Traddles would know a buffalo if he met one in his soup.” “What a ridiculous thing, Dig,” said Chet. “And you needn’t scorn the fact of the existence of the buffaloes. Rafe told us about them, too. And maybe we’ll get a shot at them.” “How?” demanded Digby, fired by the thought. But at that instant something happened to the miner who was being ridden on a rail, which attracted their attention again. “Hi! see that somersault!” cried Dig. “Oh, dear me!” Chet exclaimed. “That was enough to break his neck.” “And serve him just right!” quoth the savage Dig. Tony Traddles, in struggling to free himself, and while raised on the shoulders of the men, had turned completely over and now hung head-down, his long hair brushing the uneven ground over which he was being carried. The rough men laughed and cheered; nor did they offer at first to help the discharged miner. Tony struggled and fought and finally was helped to a sitting posture again. The boys were too far away to hear all the prisoner said—and that was fortunate. But now they ran forward and, above the cheers and laughter of the gang, heard Tony Traddles mouth out his threats: “I’ll git square with you all! I’ll make ye all eat dirt fur this day’s work! Mark me, I’ll do fur ye all yet!” The men hooted and laughed at him, and Tony’s rage grew. “I’ll make ye all sing another tune. An’ I’ll git square with old Havens. Mark what I say now! I’ll git square.”