Marguerite met Nick Ellhorn coming out of John Daniel's office with a broad smile curling his mustaches toward his eyes. He had been on a still hunt for his Chinese queue, and had run at once upon the certainty that something had happened which several people would like to keep quiet. And he had not only recovered the pig tail, but had found out what had been done and who had done it. "Oh, Mr. Ellhorn!" exclaimed Marguerite, "I am so glad to find you! There is a Mexican girl at my house--she dropped down dreadfully ill at my gate last night and I took her in--who wants to see Mr. Mead. She says her father is Juan Garcia, and that he lives away beyond Muletown, in the Fernandez mountains. The _padre_ confessed her this morning and now she says he told her that she must tell Emerson Mead something before she dies. I do not know what it is, and she says she can not tell any one except Mr. Mead. Will you come to the house and find out what she wants?" Ellhorn's eyes opened wide, but he kept an impassive face. "Amada Garcia! What the--whatever is she here for, and how did she get here!" "I think she must have walked, for her feet were blistered." "Walked! Walked from old Garcia's ranch! Good God! Well, I sure reckon she must have something to say. I'll go right along and see her." When Nick Ellhorn came out of the Delarue house he heard the whistle of the train from the north. "I've just time to make it," he thought. "I can't stop to say a word to anybody about this business, or I'll miss this train. Well, I reckon I might just as well not say anything about it, anyway, as long as Tommy isn't here, until I get back--if I ever get back! They'll be only too glad to snake me in down there, if they get the chance. I'll just have to make a quick scoot across the line, and trust to the luck of the Irish army! If Tommy was only here we'd get this thing through, if we had to wade through hell and tote home the back doors. But I can't stop to wait for company. I'll try it alone, and I sure reckon I'll be too smart for 'em!" CHAPTER XXIV Emerson Mead's trial had been in progress nearly two weeks, but most of the time had been exhausted in impaneling a jury. Almost the entire male population of Las Plumas had filed between the opposing lawyers and, for one reason or another, had been excused. At last a jury had been chosen, not because its members were satisfactory to either side, but because both sides had exhausted their peremptory challenges and neither could find further objection which the judge would allow. Thomson Tuttle arrived soon after Nick Ellhorn's departure, and was alternately puzzled and indignant over his absence. He felt sure that Nick had gone away on some expedition of importance and probably of danger. He was puzzled to think what it could possibly be, and indignant that Nick had thus risked himself without the aid and protection of his best friend.