"Now we'll divide the ground up in small squares," announced Corporal Cotter as he led his picked men away. "We'll search each square minutely, so that no little patch may be overlooked." "Won't it be best, Corporal," hinted Hal, "to start where the thieves were when the fighting began?" "Just the ticket, Overton," nodded the corporal. So the search began at that point. Nor did it last long, for Hal, thrusting with the butt of his rifle, poked a large bush partly aside exclaiming: "I guess you'd better come here, Corporal," the recruit called. As Cotter came running to the spot Private Overton displayed a hole rising some three feet above the grounds. It had been covered by the foliage of the bush. "Looks like the mouth of a cave, doesn't it?" Hal asked, with gleaming eyes. "A whole lot," agreed Corporal Cotter, producing a pocket electric flashlight. "You can follow me in, Overton, if you like." Corporal and private crawled into the hole. They did not have to go more than six feet before they stood in a stone-walled chamber of considerable size. Roughly, it appeared to be an apartment of about twenty by thirty-five feet. "Beds, tables, chairs, lamps, grub," enumerated Corporal Cotter, looking about him gleefully. "Take the lamp, Overton. I'm going back to call the captain." Less than two minutes later Captain Cortland stood in the rockbound chamber. "Well, this is a place!" whistled the officer in surprise. "This chest is locked, sir," reported Hal, who had been improving his time by looking about. "Do you think it may contain loot. Captain?" "There's an ax," nodded Cortland, glancing around him. "Corporal, just try the ax on the chest--carefully." With a few blows Cotter had the chest open. Captain Cortland knelt by the wooden chest to inspect. "This is clothing on top," he announced. "But--ah, what does this look like?" In the middle of the chest's contents he had come upon carefully wrapped packages of jewelry, watches and the like. "We won't go any further just now," declared the captain. "But we'll take back this chest with us." On the return to Fort Clowdry the prisoners, though captured on the military reservation, were turned over to the civil officers. Even Tip Branders and the wounded chief of the band were taken to Clowdry for care by the town authorities. The chest was found to have contained all the stolen jewelry. The money that had been taken on the same raids, however, was not found. Plainly the thieves had used the money for the needs of the moment. Hal and Noll, on their return, reported promptly to the commander of the guard, for they still belonged to the guard detail. "Queer, ain't it?" asked Private Bill Hooper that morning in Hupner's squad room as the men were washing up before morning mess call. "What is?" demanded Private Hyman.