"Then you must know many actors," she said. "Perhaps you know him?"

"Know whom?"

"Lawton--Lawton Kilgore."

Frank shook his head.

"Never heard of him."

She showed great disappointment.

"I am so sorry," she said. "I hoped you might be able to tell me something about him. If you can tell me nothing, I must tell you. I must talk to somebody. You see how it is. Mother is dead. Father sent me to school in the East. It was there that I met Lawton. He was so handsome!

He was the leading man in a company that I saw. Then, after the company disbanded for the season, he came back to spend the summer in the town where I was at school. I suppose I was foolish, but fell in love with him. We were together a great deal. We became engaged."

Frank fancied he knew what was coming. The girl was skipping over the story as lightly as possible, but she was letting him understand it all.

"I didn't write father about it," she went on, "for I knew he would not approve of Lawton. He wanted me to marry Brandon King, who owns the Silver Forks Ranch. I did not love King. I loved Lawton Kilgore. But the princ.i.p.al of the school found out what was going on, and he wrote father. Then Lawton disappeared, and I heard nothing from him. They say he deserted me. I do not believe it. I think he was driven away. I waited and waited for him, but I could not study, I could not do anything. He never came back, and, at last, father came and took me away. He brought me here. He was ashamed of me, but he said he would not leave me to starve, for I was his own daughter. His kindness was cruel, for he cut me off from the world. Still I believe that some day Lawton will come for me and take me away from here. I believe he will come--if they have not killed him!"

She whispered the final words.

"They? Who?" asked Frank, startled.

"My father and my brother," she answered. "They were furious enough to kill him. They swore they would."

She had told Merry her story, and she seemed to feel relieved. She asked him many questions about the actors he knew. He said he had the pictures of nearly all who had taken parts in his two plays. She asked to see them, and he brought them out from his large traveling case, showing them to her one by one. She looked at them all with interest.

Of a sudden, she gave a low, sharp cry. Her hand darted out and caught up one of the photographs.

"Here--here!----" she panted. "You have his picture here! This is Lawton Kilgore--Lawton, my lover!"

It was the picture of Leslie Lawrence!

CHAPTER VII.

THE TRAGEDY AT THE RANCH.

"That?" exclaimed Frank. "You must be mistaken! That man's name is not Kilgore, it is Lawrence."

He fancied the girl was crazy. He had wondered if her misfortune had affected her brain.

"This is the picture of Lawton Kilgore!" she repeated, in a dull tone.

"Do you think I would not know him anywhere--under any circ.u.mstances?

This is the man who promised to marry me! This is the man my father hates as he hates a snake!"

"Well, that man is worthy of your father's hatred," said Merry, "for he is a thoroughbred villain. But I think you must be mistaken, for your father met him in Denver. This man had me arrested, and your father followed to the police station, and was instrumental in securing my release. If this man was Kilgore, your father would have found his opportunity to kill him."

"You do not understand," panted the girl. "Father has never seen him to know him--has never even seen his picture. If Lawton was known by another name, father would not have recognized him, even though they met in Denver."

Frank began to realize that the girl was talking in a sensible manner, and something told him she spoke the truth. To his other crimes, Lawrence had added that of deceiving an innocent girl.

"And he is in Denver?" panted the rancher's daughter. "He is so near!

Oh, if he would come to me!"

Frank was sorry that he had permitted her to see the photographs, but it was too late now for regrets.

The girl pressed the picture to her lips.

"You must give it to me!" she panted. "I will take it to my room! I wish to be alone with it at once! Oh, I thank you!"

Then she hurried from the room, leaving Merry in anything but a pleasant frame of mind.

There was a sound outside the window. Frank got up and went over to the window. Looking out, he saw two horses standing at a little distance from the ranch. A man was holding them, and the faint light of the moon fell on the man's face.

"Well, I wonder what that means?" speculated Frank. "Those horses are saddled and bridled. Who is going to ride them to-night?"

Then he remembered the two forms he had seen coming out of the mist that lay on the plain, and he wondered if they had not been two hors.e.m.e.n.

Something about the appearance of the man at the heads of the horses seemed familiar. He looked closer.

"About the size and build of Lloyd Fowler," he muttered. "Looks like Fowler, but of course it is not."

There was a step on the veranda, and a figure appeared at the open window. Into the room stepped a man.

Frank sprang back, and was face to face with the intruder.

"Leslie Lawrence!" he whispered.

"Yes," said the man, advancing insolently; "I am Leslie Lawrence."

"What do you want?"

"I want an engagement in your new company. I have come here for it. Will you give it to me?"

Frank was astounded by the insolence of the fellow.

"I should say not!" he exclaimed. "What do you take me for? No, Leslie Lawrence, alias Lawton Kilgore, villain, deceiver of innocent girls, wretch who deserves hanging, I will not give you an engagement, unless it is with an outraged father. Go! If you wish to live, leave instantly.

If Kent Carson finds you here, he will know you now, and your life will not be worth a cent!"

At this moment the door was flung open, and Ephraim Gallup came striding into the room, saying as he entered:

"Darned if I knowed there was a purty young gal in this haouse! Thought I'd come daown, Frank, an' see if yeou was goin' to stay up all night writin' on that play of---- Waal, I be gosh-blamed!"

Ephraim saw Lawrence, and he was astounded.