"Seed it. Standing all corded up and with a tag on it, right in the hall. Knowed Sam was going to get ready a four-mule team for Amarillo to-morrow morning. The gal's going with it, and Mack Hinkman to drive. Good-night! if there's treasure in that chest, you'll have to break into the Merchants' and Drovers' Bank of Amarillo to get at it--take that from me!" Pete leaned toward him and his hairy hand clutched Ratty's knee. What he said to the discharged employee of the Bar-T Ranch Frances did not hear. She had, however, heard enough. She was worried by what Ratty had said about his interview with Captain Rugley. Her father should not have been disturbed by ranch business just then. The girl crept back through the grove, found Molly where she had left her, and soon was a couple of miles away from the ford and making for the ranch-house at Molly's very best pace. She found her father not so much excited as she had feared. Ratty had forced his way into the stricken cattleman's room and done some talking; but the Captain was chuckling now over the incident. "That's the kind of a spirit I like to see you show, Frances," he declared, patting her hand. "If those punchers don't do what you tell 'em, bounce 'em! They've got to learn what you say goes--just as though I spoke myself. And Ratty M'Gill never was worth the powder to blow him to Halifax," concluded the ranchman, vigorously. Frances was glad her father approved of her action. But she did not believe they were well rid of Ratty just because he had started for Jackleg Station. She had constantly in mind Ratty and the man, Pete, with their heads together beside the campfire; and she wondered what villainy they were plotting. Nevertheless, in the face of possible danger, she went ahead with her scheme of starting for Amarillo in the morning. And, as Ratty had said, the chest, burlapped, corded, and tagged, stood in the main hall of the ranch-house, ready for removal. CHAPTER XVI A FRIEND INSISTENT It was a long way to the Peckham ranch-house, at which Frances meant to make her first night stop. The greater part of the journey would then be over. The second night she proposed to stay at the hotel in Calas, a suburb of Amarillo. Her errands in the big town would occupy but a few hours, and she expected to be back at Peckham's on the third evening, and at home again by the end of the fourth day. She was troubled by the thought of being so long away from her father's side; but he was on the mend again and the doctor had promised to see him at least once while she was away from the ranch. Her reason she gave for going to Amarillo was business connected with the forthcoming pageant, "The Panhandle: Past and Present." This explanation satisfied her father, too--and it was true to a degree.