“He got into the hollow sure enough and I guess he found the money all right, but he’ll never get out unless one of us goes there to get him out!” Westy said mysteriously. “Why?” interrogated the voices in unison. “Because I cut the rope!” CHAPTER XL—OLLIE MAKES HIS EXIT When Ol’ Pop felt up to it they started back for Eagle Pass to breakfast. He was talking with Uncle Jeb and said he hadn’t decided what he would do for a while and would stay in the cabin while he was thinking it over. Anyhow, he mentioned that if his money was still intact, he could live the rest of his life in comfort. Westy and Artie walking ahead could hear them talking and wondered then why Ol’ Pop had risked his money to such a place as the hollow! Not only his money, but it had almost cost him his life, they thought, and all for what? Undoubtedly if we could answer questions like those, we would have to be infinite in our wisdom. However, the two old scouts praised these two young scouts for their intuitive sense concerning Ollie, and vowed that they would never again think they were too old to learn something from these younger minds. [Illustration: HE KEPT THE RIFLE POINTED DIRECTLY AT HIM, AS ARTIE STRUGGLED WITH THE HEAVY STEEL BOX] As they rounded the lake they all glanced simultaneously up toward the hollow with eager eyes. There was Ollie, who had spied them as soon as they appeared at the lake, leaning over the edge waving to them frantically for help. Westy remarked that he thought it was just the thing he would do. A coward when he was cornered. They sat there joyously eating breakfast, watching his frenzied appeals for help. It was Westy who had suggested letting him suffer at least apprehension, if they couldn’t make him suffer anything else. Any one so devoid of human feeling as this stone-faced individual deserved the full limits of the law, he concluded. “I told you from the looks of his eyes he didn’t have any soul!” Artie said proudly. “Wa-al, boys,” Uncle Jeb said, “it wuz shure left fer you ’uns ter show us, wuzn’t it?” “I hope you won’t believe the hollow is haunted any more?” Westy asked Uncle Jeb. “No, indeedy, not now!” he said, chuckling, and then turned to Ol’ Pop. “How cum, yer ol’ crony you, thet ye picked thet durn place ter hide yer money?” “Cuz,” answered Ol’ Pop, not very informative, “I didn’ believe in any fool ghosts, ’n you ’n all the folks here’bouts did.”