His burly arm sent her scuttling toward the trap-door; and a second later she was below, bruised from the fall and half fainting with disappointment and despair.
Brief as the glimpse had been, she was positive she recognised two faces in the crowd of men--Anderson Crow's and Ed Higgins's.

It meant, if her eyes did not deceive her, that the searchers were near at hand, and that dear, old Daddy Crow was leading them.

Her hopes flew upward and she could not subdue the triumphant glance that swept the startled crowd when Bill breathlessly broke the news.
Absolute quiet reigned in the cave after that.

Maude cowed the prisoner into silence with the threat to cut out her tongue if she uttered a cry.
Later, the tramp of feet could be heard on the floor of the cabin.
There was a sound of voices, loud peals of laughter, and then the noise made by some one in the cellar that served as a blind at one end of the cabin.

After that, dead silence.