“What’s the use of me tellin’ you when you’ll be sartin to go off mad? You see, we kalkerlated to make twenty-six thousand dollars clear by two night’s work, but that didn’t satisfy us. Philip, he told us that thar was a whole bit of gold and silver in your uncle’s office, an’ we wanted that too; so we slipped down thar, an’ Philip, he opened the door an’ let us in.” “Into our house!” cried George, who now learned for the first time of the attack that had been made upon the rancho. “Yes, into your house; but we didn’t get nothing but bullets an’ one hoss fur our pains.” “It served you just right,” said George, indignantly. “They are not all traitors in that house, I tell you.” “Not by no means they ain’t,” said Springer, with a knowing shake of the head. “One of the herders, who was awake, aroused the others by firing his revolver, an’ it’s the biggest wonder in the world that any of us got out. We tried to cut down the doors, but they drove us off, and then we made a strike fur Brown’s Run, whar we allowed to find you. On the way we run into about five hundred head of stock, an’ thinkin’ that a bird in the hand was worth a dozen in the woods, we drove ‘em off. We got ‘em across the river all right, an’ dodgin’ the rangers who follered us, we came back arter you. We found you too, an’ some of us got more’n we wanted,” added Springer, looking down at his bandages and groaning faintly. George listened to all this in the greatest amazement. He remembered now, that just before he left home with his supplies, his uncle had questioned him closely about some things in which he had previously shown no interest whatever, and that he seemed particularly anxious to know where his nephew expected to find his herd, and which way Zeke would probably drive it after George joined him. The boy never would have thought of the circumstance again, if it had not been for this interview with his father’s old herdsman; but now it was recalled very vividly to his mind, and he was obliged to confess to himself that the half-formed suspicions he had long entertained were not without foundation. His Uncle John was at the bottom of all his troubles, and Philip, the Mexican cook, was his confidential assistant. The boy’s heart sank within him while he thought about it. He didn’t know what to do, and there was only one man in the settlement to whom he could go for advice. “Well, Springer,” said George, suddenly, “we have wasted time enough. I have a long journey to make, and so have you. I hope you will succeed in getting safely over the river, and that the lesson you have received will be the means of making you an honest man. I will put you on your horse and divide my provisions with you, and that is all I can do for you.” “An’ it’s a heap more nor any body else would do for me,” said Springer, gratefully. “You won’t tell none of the settlers that you seed me, will you?”