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Rh whispered the young captain. "I just picked up a message which Gilroy must have dropped," and he told what the sheet contained.

"If I were you I'd burn the paper," said Darry. "Then he won't know you have seen it."

"No, I would like to keep the sheet to show—to Colonel Fairfield if I can manage to get away."

"Who wrote the message?"

"I have no idea. There used to be a half-breed around here whom the soldiers called Mose, but I thought he was dead. He was thick with the Modoc Indians."

"Then if he was the writer that would show that the Indians are going to help the desperadoes, wouldn't it?" asked Joe.

Before his brother could answer, Matt Gilroy stalked into the cave.

"I told you not to talk," he growled, as he cast his eye on the table and then around the rocky floor. "You can't get away, so it won't do you any good to plot against me and my men."

He was evidently looking for the sheet of paper, for presently he lit a torch and went over the whole cave carefully.

"See anything of a bit of paper around here?" he asked presently.

"What kind of a paper?" questioned Darry.

"Something with writing on it."