by Old scout
was on.
Young Wild West kept slapping him on the face with the flat of his knifeblade, and this was galling to the outlaw.
"What are you, a young fiend?" he cried, savagely, as he received ascratch on the neck, which he knew could have been his finish if the boyhad so willed it.
"No," answered Wild; "I am simply a boy who has practiced this sort ofbusiness a great deal. Look, out for yourself, Cap! I am going to makeyou drop that knife!"
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the back of Wild's bladestruck the villain's wrist.
Uttering a cry of pain, Roche dropped his weapon.
Then he staggered back and picked up a stone.
Crack!
One of the miners fired and the man reeled, and, letting go the stone,dropped to the ground, dead.
Our hero now went into the cave, for the twelve men who had survivedwere all tied hard and fast.
It was only natural that he should want to look around the cave, and oneof the first things he came across was the paint that had been used tomake the signs, or some just like it.
A brush was found, and he painted the following across the entirebreadth of the curtain:
"Closed for Repairs--No More Toll Collected in the Pass!"
"I reckon that looks all right, don't it, boys?" he called out to theminers.
"You bet!" cried John Sedgwick. "Boys, give three cheers fur Young WildWest!"
The cheering echoed through the pass.
It was now near noon, but Wild was bent on doing the work he had inview, so he started in.
He sent the miners on with the prisoners, and then he painted a coupleof signs to take the places of those at either end of the pass.
The signs when finished bore the words:
"Short Cut Pass--No danger!"
(Signed) "Young Wild West."
"There! I reckon as soon as we have put these up we will call the jobcomplete," he said.
Not until they were up did our friends return to their camp.
There was a big time in Big Bonanza, as might be supposed.
A messenger had been sent over to Silver Bend to spread the news of thecapture of the outlaw band, and, with the prisoners locked in a shanty,the miners danced around it in delight.
It was the middle of the afternoon when a crowd came over from SilverBend, and then the prisoners were turned over to the Vigilantes who werewith them.
Everybody was surprised when they heard that Cap Roche was dead, andthat he had been the leader of the outlaws.
The next day Young Wild West and his friends left Big Bonanza.
They rode through the pass that had been forbidden to travelers unlessthey paid toll, and stopped at Silver Bend, for a day and night.
They received a big ovation there, and the next morning they set out forArizona, where our hero had some business to attend to.
They all were willing to allow that it was one of the liveliest morningsthey had ever put in when they went to Forbidden Pass, however.
But Arietta had paid the toll, so that was sufficient.
THE END.
Read "YOUNG WILD WEST AND THE INDIAN TRAITOR; or, THE CHARGE OF THE'RED' BRIGADE" which will be the next number (290) of "Wild WestWeekly."
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