While they were thus engaged inside the house, a proceeding which looks strange at the first glance, but which will be plain enough when all the circumstances connected with it are known, was going on outside of it. A horseman, who was riding rapidly along the road toward the rancho, turned off just before he reached it, and made his way to the corral that was located a short distance to the right of the shed in which Ned had taken refuge on the night of the fight. He stopped in front of the gate and uttered an exclamation of disappointment when he found that it was secured by a heavy padlock. After looking about him for a moment, as if he were turning some problem over in his mind, he dismounted, pulled the bridle over his horse’s head and hung it upon the horn of the saddle; whereupon the animal turned and galloped toward a watering-trough a short distance away, where he was joined by a small, dark-colored mule which had followed the horseman down the trail. The horseman himself moved toward the house, pausing every now and then to listen and reconnoiter the ground before him, and presently reached the steps leading to the porch. These he mounted with cautious tread, and was about to place his hand upon the door when it was suddenly opened from the inside, a flood of light streamed out into the darkness, and the horseman was confronted by a stalwart herdsman who started back in surprise at the sight of him. Arresting by a hasty gesture the cry of amazement that arose to the herdsman’s lips, the visitor stepped into the hall, and, closing the door behind him, uttered a few short, quick sentences in a low tone of voice which the other received with subdued ejaculations of wonder. When he ceased speaking the herdsman hastened away, and the visitor, who seemed to be perfectly familiar with the internal arrangements of the house, moved quickly along the hall, turning several corners, and finally opening a door which gave entrance into Mr. Ackerman’s office. There was a happy party gathered in that office, if one might judge by the ringing peal of laughter which echoed through the hall, when the door was opened; but it was quickly checked at the sight of the boy who entered as though he had a perfect right to be there, and whose appearance was so sudden and unexpected that it brought two of the three persons in the room to their feet in an instant. “Why, George!” they both cried in a breath—and a quick ear would have discovered that there was more surprise than cordiality in their tones—“Is this you? Where in the world have you been so long? We have been worried to death about you!” “Yes it is I,” answered George Ackerman, for he it was. “I have come back safe and sound, and that is all I can say to you now about myself. I want to talk to you about yourselves, and especially to you Ned. By the way, I suppose this is the friend from Foxboro’ whom you have so long been expecting.”