Frank could not go to bed without visiting Roderick. He found the horse standing quietly by the spring, and when he saw his master approaching, he raised his head and welcomed him with a shrill neigh. "O, if we could only get half a minute's start of these robbers!" said Frank, patting the animal's glossy neck, "wouldn't we show them a clean pair of heels? They'd never have us prisoners again, I _bet_." Frank emphasized the last word by punching Roderick in the ribs with his thumb--an action which caused the animal to lay back his ears, and kick viciously, with both feet, at some imaginary object behind him. When our hero returned to the place where he had left Archie and Johnny, he saw them lying on their beds securely bound. Pierre stood close by, with a lasso in his hand, and, when Frank came up, he greeted him with a fierce scowl, and, in a savage tone of voice, commanded him to cross his arms behind his back. Frank obeyed, and the Ranchero, while he was busy confining him, inquired: "Do you remember what I said to you at noon?" "About what?" asked Frank. "About making scare-crows of you and your friends, if my messenger does not return at daylight." "I believe I do remember something about it." "Then why did you advise your uncle to detain him? You must be tired of life. You told Mr. Winters to send those rascally trappers up here, with a party of men, to capture us." "Now, see here, Pierre," exclaimed Frank, angrily, "Dick and Bob are not rascals. They are honest men, and what they own, they have worked hard for. They will be up here--you may depend upon that--and, if Dick once gets his hands on you"-- "O, won't he shake him up, though!" cried Archie, from his blanket. "I wouldn't be in Pierre's shoes then for all the money he will ever get for us." "You may make up your minds to one thing," said the chief; "and that is, if so much as a hair of that messenger's head is harmed, you will be swinging from some of these trees at sunrise." "That is a soothing story to tell to a person who is trying to go to sleep," observed Johnny. "You can't make us believe that you would throw away sixty thousand dollars," said Frank. "Be careful," he added, as Pierre, after confining his arms with one end of the lasso, began to wind the other around his ankles; "make those knots secure, or I may get away from you again." "I'll risk that. Now, good-night, and pleasant dreams to you." The robber lifted Frank in his arms, and laid him upon his blanket, as if he had been a sack of flour, and then walked off, leaving his prisoners to their meditations. Scarcely had he disappeared, when Arthur, who had stood at a little distance, watching the operations of the chief, came up, and, after regarding the three boys a moment with a smile of triumph, inquired: "How do you feel now? I hope you will enjoy a good night's rest. You see I am at liberty." And he stretched out his arms, to show that they were not confined.