"For myself," said Frances, quietly. "Pratt is too sick to notice much what I wear, I guess. But I find that I have been paying too little attention to dress." "Huh!" snorted the old ranchman. "It is a woman's duty to make herself as beautiful and attractive as possible," said Frances, with a bright smile. "You know, I read that in a woman's paper." "You surely did!" agreed the ranchman, and then turned to meet Silent Sam as that individual drew up to the step. "What's the good word, Sam?" inquired the Captain. "Got that Ratty. He's in the jail at Jackleg. Like you said, I never told nobody but the sheriff what 'twas for you wanted him." "That's right," said the Captain, gravely. "If the boys understood he was mixed up with this kidnapping business, I don't know what they would do." "Right, Captain," said the foreman. "So the sheriff took him for being all lit up. Ratty won't sleep it off before to-morrow." "And if they could catch that Pete What's-his-name by then----" "Ain't found hide nor hair of him," answered Silent Sam. "Where do you reckon he went to, Sam?" "He didn't go with his horse, Captain. He fooled us." "What?" "That's so. Horse was found yisterday evenin' down beyand Peckham's--scurcely breathed. He'd run fur, but he didn't have nobody on his back." "I see!" ejaculated the ranchman, smiting one doubled fist upon the other palm. "That Pete has fooled us from the start." "Sure did," admitted Sam. "He never mounted his horse at all?" cried Frances, deeply interested. "That's it," said her father. "We ought to have known that at the time. No horse could have gone smashing through the brush the way that one did without knocking his rider's head off." "Sure," agreed Sam again. "And he was right there near the place he held Pratt and me captive all the time we were making a stretcher for poor Pratt," said Frances. "Or hiking up stream," said the foreman, preparing to ride down to the corral. "Lucky the boy broke the fellow's gun as he did," said Captain Rugley, thoughtfully, turning to his daughter. "Otherwise some of us might have been popped off from the bushes." "Oh, Daddy!" "When a man's as mean as that scalawag," said her father, philosophically, "there's no knowing to what lengths he will go. I shan't feel that you are safe on the ranges until he's found and jailed." "And I shan't feel that we're out of trouble until your friend Mr. Lonergan comes here and you divide and get rid of that silly old treasure," declared Frances, and she pouted a little. "What's that, Frances?" gasped the old Captain. "All those jewels and stuff? Why, don't you care anything for them?" "I care more for my peace of mind," she said, decidedly. "And see what it's brought poor Pratt to." "Well," said her father, subsiding. "The boy did git the dirty end of the stick, for a fact. I'm sorry he was hurt----"