Frances' secret plans did not interfere with her usual tasks. She started in the morning to make her rounds. Molly had been resting and would now be in fine fettle, and the girl expected to call her to the gate when she came down to the corral in which the spare riding stock was usually kept. Instead of seeing only José Reposa or one of the other Mexicans hanging about, here was a row of punchers roosting along the top rail of the corral fence, and evidently so much interested in what was going on in the enclosure that they did not notice the approach of Captain Rugley's daughter. "Better keep off'n the leetle hawse, Ratty!" one fellow was advising the unseen individual who was partly, at least, furnishing the entertainment for the loiterers. "She looks meek," put in another, "but believe me! when she was broke, it was the best day's work Joe Magowan ever done on this here ranch. Ain't that so, boys?" "Ratty warn't here then," said the first speaker. "He don't know that leetle Molly hawse and what capers she done cut up----" "Molly!" ejaculated Frances, under her breath, and ran forward. At that instant there was a sudden hullabaloo in the corral. Some of the men cheered; others laughed; and one fell off the fence. "Go it!" "Hold tight, boy!" "Tie a knot in your laigs underneath her, Ratty! She's a-gwine to try to throw ye clean ter Texarkana!" _"What's he doing with my pony?"_ The cry startled the string of punchers. They turned--most of them looking sheepish enough--and gaped, wordlessly, at Frances, who came running to the fence. Molly was her pet, her own especial property. Nobody else had ridden the pinto since she was broken by the head wrangler, Joe Magowan. Nor was Molly really broken, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Frances could ride her--could do almost anything with her. She was the best cutting-out pony on the ranch. She was gentle with Frances, but she had never shown fondness for anybody else, and would look wall-eyed on the near approach of anybody but the girl herself. None but Joe and Frances had ever bridled her or cinched the saddle on Molly. Ratty M'Gill was the culprit, of course; nor did he hear Frances' cry as she arrived at the corral. He had bestridden the nervous pinto and Molly was "acting up." Ratty had his rope around her neck and a loop around her lower jaw, as Indians guide their half-wild steeds. At every bound the puncher jerked the pony's jaw downward and raked her flanks with his cruel spurs. These latter were leaving welts and gashes along the pinto's heaving sides. "You cruel fellow!" shrieked Frances. "Get off my pony at once!" "Say! she's trying to buck, Miss Frances," one of the men warned her. "She'll be sp'il't if he lets her beat him now. You won't never be able to ride her, once let her git the upper hand."