jerry and bob looked sharply at ned slade. one thought was in the minds of the tall lad and chunky.

“was ned joking?”

but a look at his serious face forbade any such idea as that. he was in dead earnest as he looked about on the frowning rocky walls of the canyon that hemmed them in.

“lost! what do you mean?” exclaimed bob, and from the caverns about them came back the mocking echo.

“you mean!”

“just what i say—we’re lost!” cried ned. and the echo said:

“lost!”

“for cats’ sake don’t yell so!” begged jerry. “this is getting on my nerves!”

though he had spoken in only a low voice, back to his ears and those of his chums came the weird whisper:

“nerves!”

[118]

for a moment something like real panic seized the motor boys, and the impulse of each of them was to run. but they did not know which direction to take. then, too, this sensation lasted but a few seconds before they had control of themselves again and the situation was well in hand.

“do you really think we’re lost?” asked jerry, in a whisper which in a measure defeated the echo, as only a faint murmur came back.

“i’m sure of it!” and ned was equally careful about using loud tones. “this is where the echo is loudest, you remember, and it’s where i found the red rock. i thought it might be red gold, that i’ve heard can be found in some places, but as soon as i picked up the rock i found it was too light to be gold, so i chucked it away. but here we are back at the same place instead of being on our way out of the canyon.”

“that’s so,” agreed bob. “but let’s get to some place where we can talk naturally without all those echoes butting in, and then we can decide what’s best to do. i’m glad i brought some sandwiches,” and he significantly tapped his bulging coat pockets on either side.

it was no time for ned or jerry to poke fun at the fat lad, and they held back any remarks that might have occurred to them.

“we may be lost a long time,” went on chunky.

[119]

“oh, i think we can soon find a way out of here,” jerry replied.

the boys moved away from the place where the echoes were loudest and came to an overhanging shelf that formed an entrance to a small cave. here they could talk in normal tones without being annoyed by the mocking echoes.

“i thought we could easily get out of here after we got in,” remarked jerry, as they looked about them.

“so did i,” agreed ned. “i didn’t take any particular notice, and the miner didn’t say the place was a puzzle.”

yet a puzzle it was proving, the boys had to admit when ned pointed out to them that they had actually wandered about in almost a complete circle.

“then the question is, how are we going to get out?” asked bob, as he fumbled in his pocket for one of the packages.

“what are you going to do?” countered jerry.

“i thought maybe we’d better eat something,” said bob, innocently enough. “there’s a spring of water here. after we’ve had some food maybe we can think better.”

“chunky, for once you have a good idea!” exclaimed jerry, laughing in spite of their rather serious predicament. “let’s see what you have there!”

[120]

generally it could be left to the stout lad not to skimp matters when he was getting a lunch to bring with him, and this had been no exception. hang gow had been generous, for which the lads were now very thankful.

bob opened one package of sandwiches, remarking that there were two apiece and that it would be best to save the second batch until later, and in this his chums agreed.

they ate, drank some of the clear, cold water that bubbled up out of a rock, and then looked about them for a time without speaking.

echo canyon as a whole extended north and south, but it had many branches.

“the question is, which way do we want to go?” asked jerry. “and we’ve got to decide quickly or the sun will be down and we can’t see which way to go.”

“i say go to the north,” remarked ned. “we came in that way, i’m pretty sure.”

“and i’m equally certain that we came in from the south and should go out that way,” said jerry.

“and there you are!” exclaimed bob.

“well, what do you say?” asked jerry, a bit sharply. “looks as if you had the deciding vote, chunky.”

bob shook his head in perplexity.

“by golly!” he exclaimed, “i don’t know what[121] to say. one minute it seems to me that we came in from the south, and then, the more i think of it, it seems as if it was the north. i’m all turned around!”

“i guess we all are,” answered jerry grimly. “well, since it’s a tie as far as you and i are concerned, ned, we’d better try first one way and then the other. we must keep our eyes open for any marks that we noticed in coming into this place. we should have marked the trail in some way.”

“um,” agreed ned. “lock the stable door after the auto has been run out! fine!”

“well, have you anything better to propose?” asked jerry, a bit sharply.

“oh, no,” ned answered. “and i didn’t mean to be sarcastic. we’ll try your way first, jerry.”

this was giving in, and the tall lad understood it so. he smiled and got up from the rock on which he had been sitting as they ate.

“let’s go!” he proposed. “and make it snappy!”

the boys turned as near south as they could make that direction, judging from the sun, which was now low in the west and would soon be lost to sight behind the high, rocky wall of the canyon. tramping along the rough trail their eyes sought for the sight of any landmark they might have noticed when coming in.

but they saw nothing familiar, and the farther[122] they went the more discouraged they became. jerry was about to admit that he was wrong in his surmise, and to propose going back, when bob said:

“well, if we stay here long enough tinny and bill will come for us, won’t they?”

“will they know where to look?” asked ned.

“we told the miner who put us on to this canyon that we were coming here,” the stout lad replied.

“yes, i reckon if we don’t get back by night tinny will organize a searching party,” admitted jerry. “but we don’t want to have that happen. we ought to be able to get out of here ourselves. looks silly for them to have to rescue us. come on, ned, i’m willing to admit i was wrong. we’ll head north.”

so they swung about, the gloom in the deep canyon deepening as the sun sank farther and farther down in the west. they passed the place where they had eaten the sandwiches, and chunky felt in his other pocket to make sure he had not lost their second meal. it was safe, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“we’ll soon be out now,” declared ned, for he had faith in his judgment.

but when they had gone on for twenty minutes even ned was willing to call a halt, for the canyon was getting wilder and more rugged in this section,[123] and they now found that the trail was hardly passable.

“wait a minute!” called ned, rubbing his forehead in puzzled fashion. “i don’t believe there’s any use going on this way. we sure never came in here!”

“no,” said jerry, “i don’t believe we did.”

they turned back a little way. it was getting darker. bob was about to propose that they eat again, but, just when he was going to speak, he came opposite a defile leading off in the general direction of south-east.

“why not try this?” he asked, pointing to it.

“chunky, i believe you’ve struck it!” cried jerry. “come on!”

the three hastened along the new trail, but they had not advanced more than a hundred yards when suddenly all three of them felt the ground sliding from beneath them.

they made a quick descent in the half-darkness of the canyon, sliding down the steep, gravelly sides of a deep hole.

“now we are stuck!” cried ned, as he landed on the bottom in a sitting position.