"Aren't you going to invite the boys as usual?" asked Frances, quickly. "Not to the dinner!" gasped her father. "But that's all right. To the dance, afterward. Some of them are mighty good dancers, and there aren't boys enough in Mrs. Edwards' crowd to go round. It's quite the thing at a dinner dance, she says, to invite extra people to come in after the dinner is over." "All right," said Frances, suppressing another sigh. "And I'm going to send off for half a carload of potted palms, and other plants. We'll decorate like the Town Hall. You'll see!" exclaimed the old ranchman, as eager as a boy about it all. Frances hadn't the heart to make any objection, but she was afraid that the affair would be a disappointment to him. She did not think the boys from the ranges, and Sue Latrop and her girl friends, would mix well. But the Captain went ahead with his preparations with his usual energy. He had Mrs. Edwards as chief adviser. But Frances overlooked the plans in the household in her usually capable way. The big drawing-room was thoroughly cleaned and the floor waxed. The scratches made by Ratty M'Gill's spurs were eliminated. When the potted plants came--a four-mule wagon-load--Frances arranged them about the dancing floor and dining-room. She found her father practising his steps in the hall one morning before breakfast. "Goodness, Daddy," she cried. "Do be careful of your weak leg." "Don't you worry about me," he chuckled. "I'm going to give old Mr. Rheumatism a black eye this time. I'm going to 'shake a leg' at this dance if it's the last act of my life." "Don't be too reckless," she told him, with a worried little frown on her brow. "I want you to be able to ride to Jackleg to see the pageant. And that comes the very day but one after our dance." "I'll be all right," he assured her. "I have a dance promised from Mrs. Edwards and each of the girls but that Boston one, right now. And I wouldn't miss your show in Jackleg, Frances, for a penny! "I only wish Lon were here to enjoy it. I got a letter from that minister saying that Lon and he will reach here next week. If they'd come early in the week they'd get here in time for the pageant, anyway." With so much bustle and preparation about the Bar-T ranch-house, there was not much likelihood of anybody being reckless enough to attempt stealing the old Spanish chest, or its contents. These days the Captain kept the room in which the chest of treasure lay double-locked, and at night slept in the room himself. From sunset to sunrise a relay of cowboys rode around the huge house and compound, and although Pete Marin, as Ratty M'Gill's friend from Mississippi was called, was still at large, there was no fear that he, or anybody else, would get into the _hacienda_ at night. Frances, with all her duties, had less time to devote to Pratt's entertainment now. In truth, as soon as he was able to get downstairs by himself he complained that he lost his nurse.