"
"By whose order?"
The mountebank made a mysterious sign with his left hand.
"_Bueno!_" from the horseman. "Close up the doors and care for
the wounded," and putting spurs to his horse, he led the bandits
from the basin.
As soon as they were out of sight, the mountebank summoned the
boys to the shaft house by a wave of his hand.
"Now," he said, "you'll have a chance to test your nerve, and we
must work rapidly to get where we wish to go before dark."
He took from a crude knapsack which he wore upon his shoulders a
coil of cord about half the size of a lead pencil, but evidently
of much strength. Then seizing the ape, he fastened one end of
the cord to the belt about the animal's body, and despite its
unwillingness to be thus treated began to lower it into the
shaft.
Totally unable to account for his actions, the boys stood
speechless, watching the operations.
After some minutes, the cord slackened.
"He's reached the bottom," was the information vouchsafed. Then a
moment later: "Help me to pull him up, one of you."
Billie hastened to lend a hand and in a short time the head of
the ape appeared above the edge of the shaft. In his hand he held
one end of a good-sized rope, which the mountebank took and tied
around one of the stone pillars which supported the roof.
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