It was just before dawn when Virginia awoke with a start. She wondered what had awakened her, and then as the sunlight streamed in through the high opening that served as a window, she suddenly thought of something. The message! Now that it was daylight, she might be better able to decipher it. She could not understand why she was so curious concerning it, since it could have no direct bearing upon her interests or those of her friends. Nevertheless, she was eager, and, so very quietly, not to awaken the sleeping girls, she rose and dressed. Then she slipped out to the main living-room. Winona was in the rear door-yard baking corn cakes in the stone oven, and, after greeting her, Virginia seated herself on the adobe step of the front porch to enjoy the warmth of the sun, for the morning was crisply cold. Then opening the brown paper, she studied it intently. On another paper she carefully rewrote the forms of the scrawled letters hoping that would enable her to recognize them more readily, and it did, for when she had three words copied, their meaning came to her as though by inspiration. Her heart gave a sudden leap and she could scarcely keep from crying aloud to the other girls, but she decided to translate the entire message, if she could, before awakening them, for, after all, the first three words did not give the needed information. She read them again and again. Surely they were: “Los Boregos estan—the sheep are—” but try as she might she could not read the longer and more difficult words that followed. Margaret and Barbara soon sauntered out upon the porch, but, so absorbed was Virginia that she did not know of their near presence. Suddenly she sprang up saying aloud, “We’ll do it! We’ll do it at once.” “Virginia Davis, you talking to yourself,” Margaret teased, “Uncle Tex does that, but we excuse him because he is so very old.” “Don’t joke now, Megsy dear,” Virginia said seriously, “I believe that we have come upon a matter of great importance. This message may contain information, if we can get at it, that may not only restore to Mr. Wilson his stolen sheep, but may also save the life of our dear friend Tom.” Then she showed them the three words she had copied and told them what she believed them to mean. “But Virg, dear,” Margaret said, “although I sincerely hope that the message does refer to the lost Merinos, you know that we are now in the sheep country and those three words might refer to any herd, shouldn’t you say so?” Virginia nodded. “You are right, Megsy. My eagerness to find Tom makes me grasp at straws. Nevertheless, I would never forgive myself if I found out, too late, that this message did really refer to Mr. Wilson’s lost sheep, and so, I will repeat what you heard me saying to myself a minute ago. We’ll do it and we’ll do it at once.”