"We want to know why he was so anxious for Nestor's society!" "I think that question can easily be answered now," Nestor said, but he did not answer it.
Leaving the view of the spot where Fremont was a captive reluctantly, the boys went back to the gold chamber by the series of canyons by which they had left it.

It was not an easy journey, for there were places where strength and skill were required, but at last they drew themselves up the chute by means of the rope, after which they again fell to investigating the provision boxes which the newcomers had brought in.
By the time they had finished a second tolerably satisfactory repast, it began to grow dark, although the sun was still an hour from setting.
Black masses of clouds were forming, and now and then flashes of lightning, darting from cloud to cloud, and from cloud-mass to earth, cut the gathering darkness.
Then a drenching rain-storm came on, and Nestor believed that the time for the attack on the captors of his friend had arrived.

In the darkness and storm the outlaws would not be expecting danger.

The wind almost flung the boys from their feet when they came to open shelves of rock on their way to the plain below, but they kept steadily on their course..