a lasso in his hand, and was drawing it up from the cave. He pulled it up
with one hand, while he caught and looped it with the other, until he had
nearly a score of the coils in his grasp. This could not have been the
cord which held the blanket when the shot of Mickey O'Rooney cut it and
let the bundle drop, for that was much smaller, while this was sufficient
to bear a weight of several hundred pounds, it having been used to lasso
the fleet-footed and powerful mustangs of the prairies.

"They've been fishing with it," concluded the youngster; "but I don't
believe that Mickey would bite. What are they going to do now?"

After drawing up the rope, the whole half dozen Apaches seemed to become
very attentive. They gathered in a group and began discussing matters in
their earnest fashion, gesticulating and grunting so loud that Fred
distinctly heard them from where he lay. This discussion, however,
speedily resulted in action.

Another of the blankets already described was very artistically doubled
and folded into the resemblance of a man, and then the lasso was attached
to it. The Apaches experimented with it for several minutes before putting
it to the test, but at last everything was satisfactory, and it was
launched. The aborigines seemed to comprehend what the trouble was with
the other, and they avoided repeating the error.

When they began cautiously lowering the bundle, the six gathered as close
to the margin as was prudent to await the result. Their interest was
intense, for they had mapped out their programme, and much depended upon
the result of this venture. But among the half dozen there was no one who
was more nervously interested than Fred Munson, who felt that the fate of
Mickey O'Rooney was trembling in the balance.