"Didn't ye lave the lasso hanging down into the cave?"

"I declare, I never thought of that!" exclaimed the affrighted lad. "Why
didn't you tell me?"

And he started to repair the oversight, when Mickey caught his arm and
checked him.

"Not so, me son; lave it as it is. If we should go away and lave the
spalpeens down there without the rope, they might never find the way out,
and would starve to death, and it would always grieve me to think I had
starved six Apaches to death, instead of affording meself some enjoyment
by cracking 'em over the head wid a shillelah."

"I should be sorry to do that," replied Fred, who comprehended the cruelty
of leaving the poor fellows to perish, as they were likely to do if left
without the means of escape; "but, if we leave the rope hanging there, the
whole party will be up here before we can get out of the way, and then
what shall we do?"

"Niver fear, niver fear," said Mickey, with a wave of his hand and a
magisterial shake of the head. "The spalpeens have got enough of climbing
up there for a while. They've gone off on a hunt through the cavern for
the place where you crawled out, and they'll kaap at that till morning,
and then, if there's no show for 'em, they'll come back, and begin to fool
around the rope again."

The lad had little difficulty in deciding upon his steed, which was a
coal-black mustang, lithe and willowy, and apparently of a good