Ned jumped quickly out of the manger, as he said this; but his feet had scarcely touched the ground before he turned like a flash and jumped back again, crouching down in his hiding-place as low as he could, and still see all that was going on outside the shed. The men were coming in a body toward the house. There were fifteen or twenty of them in all, and as soon as they had moved out of the shade of the trees, so that the moon’s rays could fall plainly upon them, Ned saw that they were dressed in Mexican costume—short jackets, wide trowsers and sombreros—and that they were armed to the teeth. They were cattle-thieves, of course; but what did they mean by approaching the rancho in that stealthy manner? The boy, trembling in every limb, turned his eyes from the Mexicans to the porch, where he had last seen the cook. He was there yet, and standing out in plain view of the raiders, who must have seen him, for he was not more than twenty feet away. Philip saw them, too, beyond a doubt; but, instead of running into the house and arousing the inmates, as Ned expected him to do, he walked up to the rail and rested his hands upon it. One would have thought from his actions that he was expecting the raiders. Ned thought so, and in an instant it flashed upon him that there was some treachery intended. “Father always said that Philip was a rascal!” soliloquized Ned, his rage for the moment getting the better of his terror, “and now I know he is one! He is a cattle-thief himself, and he and the rest are after the money-box! But how could Philip have found out that we had a money-box?” added Ned, as he recalled the fact that the cook belonged in the kitchen, and had probably never seen the inside of his father’s office; “and even if he had known all about the box, how could he have told his friends of it? He hasn’t been away from the house an hour at a time since he has been here.”