The Hardy boys were stunned by surprise. With victory in their grasp they had turned to confront this menacing figure that seemed to have risen like a ghost from the darkness. Black Pepper had captured them red-handed.

“Drop that gold!” growled the outlaw. “Drop that gold and put up your hands!”

They faced one another tensely. Suddenly Frank pointed to the tunnel directly behind Black Pepper.

“Grab him!” he shouted.

Almost instinctively, the outlaw wheeled about to face the enemy whom he judged was behind him. Before he realized the trick that had been played on him and while his revolvers were turned away from the two lads, the Hardy boys sprang into action.

Joe flung one of the sacks of gold with all his force. It struck against the outlaw’s arm and knocked one of the weapons clattering to the floor. At the same instant Frank flung the sack that he was carrying, and it struck Black Pepper in the chest.

The outlaw reeled backward. The Hardy boys leaped toward him.

Frank was on him before he could raise his remaining weapon. Like a flash, he seized Black Pepper’s arm, holding the revolver away from him. Then Joe joined the struggle and between the two of them they bore the outlaw to the ground by the sheer violence of their attack.

Grimly, Black Pepper struggled. The flashlight had gone out, and the battle raged in complete darkness. It was difficult to tell friend from foe. The outlaw was strong and powerful and he wrestled desperately to get free.

Frank clung grimly to the outlaw’s arm, exerting all his strength to prevent Black Pepper from getting control of the revolver. The weapon exploded in the darkness, the shot sounding like a crash of thunder in that confined space.

Frank got his hands on the revolver and wrested sharply at it. Black Pepper’s grasp relaxed. The revolver gave way and Frank wrenched it away from the outlaw. Quickly he reversed it and pressed the barrel against Black Pepper’s body.

“Put up your hands!” he snapped. “I have you covered.”

Black Pepper ceased his struggles and lay still.

“I give in,” he said quickly. “I give in. Don’t shoot.”

“Get the flashlight, Joe.”

Joe relinquished his grasp on the outlaw and searched for the flashlight, which had rolled to a distant corner of the cave. He found it at last and switched it on. The light revealed Black Pepper lying on his back, his hands upraised. His eyes were wide with fear.

“Get up!” ordered Frank.

The outlaw scrambled to his feet, arms still high.

“Get the other gun, Joe.”

Joe found the other revolver on the floor and picked it up.

“Fine! Now we’ll take you back with us.”

“Let me go, boys,” pleaded the desperado. “It was only a joke. I was only tryin’ to scare you. Take the gold, if you want, but let me go.”

“You have a funny idea of a joke. Well, just as a joke, we’ll take you down to Lucky Bottom and clap you into jail. That’s the kind of a sense of humor we have. Pick up the gold, Joe, and go ahead of him. I’ll come behind.”

Armed with the flashlight and two sacks of gold, Joe went to the entrance of the blue room. Frank picked up the other two sacks and, still keeping Black Pepper covered with a revolver, urged him ahead.

“Forward, march!” he ordered.

Reluctantly, the outlaw strode ahead, following Joe, who was silhouetted against the circle of light cast by the flash.

“My men will see that you pay up for this!” he growled savagely.

“Your men will be scattered so far you’ll never be able to find them when they hear you’ve been taken in,” replied Frank. “If they don’t, they’ll land in jail with you. How did you happen to be down in the mine without them? Trying to make away with the gold in the storm?”

The shot told. Black Pepper looked around sharply.

“I wasn’t trying to double-cross them!” he shouted. “Don’t tell them that! Don’t say you found me down here. None of us was supposed to go in here alone.”

Frank chuckled.

“So that was your game, was it? You thought you’d sneak down here and grab the gold, then make your escape under cover of the blizzard. If we hadn’t got here first, you would have done it, too. Your men will be liable to take revenge on us after that, won’t they? Why, they’ll want to see you hanged!”

Black Pepper was silent. His bluff had failed, and he knew it. He knew that when the other outlaws heard he had been captured in the blue room they would realize that he had been trying to steal a march on them and make away with the gold without their knowledge.

Joe led the way down the passage into the next chamber, and from there they proceeded out into the main shaft.

“I guess we were right after all when he thought we heard noises,” he called back to Frank. “It was our friend here making his way down into the mine.”

“He came down quietly enough. I nearly jumped out of my shoes when I saw him standing there with those revolvers pointed at us. We’ll say that much for you, Black Pepper⁠—you took us completely by surprise.”

The outlaw grunted, but it was not with satisfaction.

Joe began to ascend the ladder that led up the side of the shaft.

“Up you go,” declared Frank, prodding the desperado in the ribs with the barrel of the revolver. Black Pepper scrambled up the rungs with alacrity.

They made the tedious climb without trouble, and when Joe emerged at the top of the shaft he took up his position and covered Black Pepper with the revolver until the outlaw was again on the surface and until Frank had joined him. The blizzard had died down to a mild snowfall, although darkness had fallen.

Far below, they could see the few twinkling lights of Lucky Bottom. A clearly defined trail led out toward the road. Joe took the lead once more.

So the odd procession made its way through the snow, the outlaw shambling despondently and dispiritedly between his captors. The weight of the gold was considerable, but Frank and Joe scarcely noticed it, so exultant were they over their double victory. They had not only recovered the gold for its rightful owners, but they had captured one of the most notorious outlaws of the West in the bargain.

When they reached Hank Shale’s cabin they marched Black Pepper up to the door. Joe stepped inside and, still covering the outlaw, bade him enter.

Frank saw his father sitting up in bed, wide-eyed with astonishment, and Hank Shale and Bart Dawson by the fire, their mouths agape. Bart Dawson had just been in the act of putting his pipe in his mouth as they entered, and he held it suspended, staring at the trio as they came into the cabin.

Joe flung down his sacks of gold on the table.

“Here’s the gold⁠—part of it, anyway!”

“And here’s the rest of it,” said Frank as he closed the door and put down his two sacks. “And here,” he said, indicating Black Pepper, “is the leader of the gang who stole it.”

“Black Pepper!” ejaculated Hank Shale, starting up.

The outlaw was silent. He eyed Frank’s revolver warily, as though even yet considering his chances of escape. But the weapon did not waver and he saw that he was trapped.

“Got a rope?” asked Frank of Hank Shale. “He must be tired keeping his hands up. We’ll tie his wrists and then march him down to the jail.”

“I’ll say I have a rope!” shouted Hank, springing up, and within a few minutes Black Pepper’s arms were firmly bound behind his back.

“But where on airth did ye find the gold?” demanded Bart Dawson, spluttering with excitement. “Tell us what happened! It’s the very gold that was stolen!” He dug his hands into the sacks and sifted the gold dust and nuggets between his fingers. “It’s all here⁠—every bit of it! Tell us all about it, lads.”

“Take him down to jail first,” said Fenton Hardy quietly. “I’m as curious as anyone to hear what happened, but the boys can tell us when they come back. The story will keep. But don’t be long.”

“I’ll go with ye!” declared Dawson, picking up his hat and scrambling into his mackinaw coat. “This is too good to miss. I never thought I’d see the day when Black Pepper would be shoved into the calaboose!”

So, with Bart Dawson chattering excitedly by their sides, the Hardy boys left the cabin, where Fenton Hardy and Hank Shale were indulging in vain conjectures as to how the gold had been recovered and how the outlaw had been captured.

As they entered Lucky Bottom, although it was nightfall and people had long since retired indoors, the news quickly spread, by some mysterious system of telegraphy or mental telepathy, and by the time they reached the jail, husky miners and citizens were running down the street from every direction, anxious to witness the spectacle of Black Pepper being put behind the bars at last.

The sheriff was in his office and his jaw sagged with amazement when they entered.

“Here’s Black Pepper for ye!” roared Bart Dawson. “Here’s a prisoner for your jail, sheriff! Clap him in a good strong cell!”

“B‑B‑Black Pepper!” stammered the sheriff.

“This is him. And see that he don’t get loose, neither. If he does, we’ll string you up to a telygrapht pole.”

“What’s the charge?” asked the sheriff mechanically.

“There don’t need to be no charge. You know as well as I do that there’s been a reward of five hundred out for Black Pepper for the last three years. Put him in a cell, and no more of your foolish questions. If you must have a charge, put him down for stealin’ four bags of gold that never belonged to him. Charge him with vagrancy and loiterin’ and spittin’ on the sidewalk. Charge him with mayhem and assault and battery and horse-stealin’ and robbery and carryin’ concealed weapons and parkin’ his autymobile too close to a hydrant. Put him down for everythin’ you’ve got on your book. He’s been guilty of ’em all.”

The sheriff wilted. He led Black Pepper to a cell, where Slim Briggs was sitting despondently. When Slim saw the leader of the gang being ushered in he shook his head in sympathy and groaned.

The door clanged.

“That fixes Black Pepper!” declared Bart Dawson, with satisfaction. “Now come on back to the cabin and tell us all about it. I’m just about dyin’ of curiosity.”

Dawson and the Hardy boys left the jail and had to fight their way through the crowd that surged about the doorway. Questions were hurled at them as they started up the street. Was it true that Black Pepper had been captured at last? Who caught him? What was he in for? How did it all happen, anyway?

“Tell ye all tomorrow,” promised Bart Dawson, leading the boys on up the hill. “I’m not very clear about it just yet, myself.”

So the Hardy boys returned to Hank Shale’s cabin on the hill, there to tell the tale of their hazardous adventures and the successful outcome of their search for the hidden gold.