The puncher evidently did not believe his friend knew what he was talking about. Pete glowered at him, too angry to speak for a minute or two.

Frances began to worm her way back through the brush. She put the biggest trees between her and the ford of the river. When she knew the two men could not see or hear her, she ran.

She had heard enough. Her mind was in a turmoil just then. Her first thought was to get away, and get Molly away. Then she would think this startling affair out.

CHAPTER XI

FRANCES ACTS

She got away from the Bottom without disturbing Ratty and the man from Bylittle. Once Molly was loping over the plain again, Frances began to question her impressions of the dialogue she had overheard.

In the first place, she was sure she had heard the voice of the man, Pete, before. It was the same drawling voice that had come out of the darkness asking for food and a bed the evening Pratt Sanderson stopped at the Bar-T Ranch.

The voice had been cheerful then; it was snarling now; but the tones were identical. Then, going a step farther, Frances realized, from the talk she had just heard, that this Pete was the man who had tried to get over the roof of the ranch-house. One and the same man--tramp and robber.

Ratty had shown Pete the way. Ratty was a traitor. He might easily have seen the broken slate on the roof and pointed it out to the mysterious Pete.

The latter had been an orderly in the Bylittle Soldiers' Home, and had heard the story of the Spanish treasure chest, when old Mr. Lonergan was rambling about it to the chaplain.

The fellow's greed had started him upon the quest of the treasure so long in Captain Rugley's care. Perhaps he had known Ratty M'Gill before; it seemed so. And yet, Ratty did not seem entirely in the confidence of the robber.

Nevertheless, Ratty must leave the ranch. Frances was determined upon this.

She could not tell her father about him; and she shrank from revealing the puncher's villainy to Silent Sam Harding. Indeed, she was afraid of what Sam and the other boys on the ranch might do to punish Ratty M'Gill. The Bar-T punchers might be rather rough with a fellow like Ratty.

Frances believed the boys on the Bar-T were loyal to her father and herself. Ratty's defection hurt her as much as it surprised her. She had never thought him more than reckless; but it seemed he had developed more despicable characteristics.

These and similar thoughts disturbed Frances' mind as she made her way back to the ranch-house. She found her father very weak, but once more quite lucid. Ming glided away at her approach and Frances sat down to hold the old ranchman's hand and tell him inconsequential things regarding the work on the ranges, and the gossip of the bunk-house.

All the time the girl's heart hungered to nurse him herself, day and night, instead of depending upon the aid of a shuffle-footed Chinaman.

The mothering instinct was just as strong in her nature as in most girls of her age. But she knew her duty lay elsewhere.

Before this time Captain Rugley had never entirely given over the reins of government into the hands of Silent Sam. He had kept in touch with ranch affairs, delegating some duties to Frances, others to Sam or to the underforeman. Now the girl had to be much more than the intermediary between the old ranchman and his employees.

The doctor had impressed her with the rule that his patient was not to be worried by business matters. Many things she had to do "off her own bat," as Sam Harding expressed it. The matter of Ratty M'Gill's discharge must be one of these things, Frances saw plainly.

She waited now for the doctor's appearance with much anxiety of mind.

The Captain was quiet when the physician came; but the effect of his delirium of the night before was plain to the medical eye.

"Something must be done to ease his mind of this anxiety about his old chum, Frances," said the doctor, taking her aside. "That, I take it, was the burden of his trouble when he rambled last night in his speech?"

"Yes, sir."

"Try to get the fellow brought here, then," said the doctor, with decision.

"That Mr. Lonergan?"

"The old soldier--yes. Can't it be done?"

"I--I don't know," said the troubled girl. "The chaplain writes that he is a sick man----"

"And so is your father. I warn you. A very sick man. And he cannot be moved, while this Lonergan can probably travel if his fare is paid."

"Oh, Doctor! If it is only a matter of money, father, I know, would hire a private car--a whole train, he said!--to get his old partner here,"

Frances declared.

"Good! I advise you to go ahead and send for the man," said the physician. "It's the best prescription for Captain Rugley that I can give you. He has his mind set upon seeing his old friend, and these delirious spells will be repeated unless his longing is satisfied. And such attacks are weakening."

"Oh, I see that, Doctor!" agreed Frances.

She sat down that very hour and wrote to the Reverend Decimus Tooley, explaining why she, instead of Captain Rugley, wrote, and requesting that Jonas Lonergan be made ready for the trip from Bylittle to Jackleg, in the Panhandle, where a carriage from the Bar-T Ranch would meet him.

She told the chaplain of the soldiers' home that a private car would be supplied for Captain Rugley's old partner to travel in, if it were necessary. She would make all arrangements for transportation immediately upon receiving word from Mr. Tooley that the old man could travel.

Haste was important, as she explained. Likewise she asked the following question--giving no reason for her curiosity:

"Did there recently leave the Bylittle Home an employee--an orderly--whose first name is Peter? And if so, what is his reputation, his full name, and why did he leave the Home?"

"Maybe that will puzzle the Reverend Mr. Tooley some," thought Frances of the ranges. "But I am indeed curious about this friend of Ratty M'Gill's. And now I'll tell Silent Sam that there is a man lurking about the Bar-T who must be watched."

She said nothing to Captain Rugley about sending for Lonergan until she had written. The doctor said it would be just as well not to discuss the matter much until it was accomplished. He also left soothing medicine to be given to the patient if he again became delirious.

Frances was so much occupied with her father all that day that she could do nothing about Ratty M'Gill. She had noticed, however, that the Mexican boy, Jose Reposa, had driven the doctor to the ranch and that he took him back to the train again.

The reckless cowpuncher had somehow bribed the Mexican boy to let him take his place on the buckboard that forenoon.

"Ratty is like a rotten apple in the middle of the barrel," thought Frances. "If I let him remain on the ranch he will contaminate the other boys. No, he's got to go!

"But if I tell him why he is discharged it will warn him--and that Pete--that we suspect, or know, an attempt is being made to rob father's old chest. Now, what shall I do about this?"

The conversation between Ratty and Pete at the ford which she had overheard gave Frances an idea. She saw that the contents of the treasure chest ought really to be put into a safety deposit vault in Amarillo. But the old ranchman considered it his bounden duty to keep the treasure in his own hands until his partner came to divide it; and he would be stubborn about any change in this plan.

Lonergan could not get to the Bar-T for three weeks, or more. In the meantime suppose Pete made another attempt to steal the contents of the Spanish chest?

Frances Rugley felt that she could depend upon n.o.body in this emergency for advice; and upon few for a.s.sistance in carrying out any plan she might make to thwart those bent upon robbing the _hacienda_. To see the sheriff would advertise the matter to the public at large. And that, she well knew, would make Captain Dan Rugley very angry.

Whatever she did in this matter, as well as in the affair of Ratty M'Gill, must be done without advice.

Her mind slanted toward Pratt Sanderson at this time. Had her father not seemed to suspect the young fellow from Amarillo, Frances would surely have taken Pratt into her confidence.

Now that Captain Rugley had given a clear explanation of how he had come possessed of a part of the loot of Senor Milo Morales' _hacienda_, Frances was not afraid to take a friend into her confidence.

There was no friend, however, that she cared to confide in save Pratt.

And it would anger her father if she spoke to the young fellow about the treasure.