't get away with that heavy chest on horseback."

"I'll go with you," returned the ranchman's daughter. "That rascal
should be apprehended and punished. We have about chased such people out
of this section of the country."

"Goodness! you take it calmly, Frances," exclaimed Pratt. "Doesn't
_anything_ ruffle you?"

She laughed shortly, and made no further remark. They rode on swiftly
and within the hour saw the lights of Peckham's ranch-house.

Their arrival brought the family to the door, as well as half a dozen
punchers up from the bunk-house. The fire had excited everybody and kept
them out of bed, although there was no danger of the conflagration's
jumping the river.

"Why, Miss Frances!" cried the ranchman's wife, who was a fleshy and
notoriously good-natured woman, the soul of Western hospitality. "Why,
Miss Frances! if you ain't a cure for sore eyes! Do 'light and come
in--and yer friend, too.

"My goodness me! ye don't mean to say you've been through that fire?
That is awful! Come right on in, do!"

But what Frances and Pratt had to tell about their adventure at the ford
excited the Peckhams and their hands much more than the fire.

"John Peckham!" commanded the fleshy lady, who was really the leading
spirit at the ranch. "You take a bunch of the boys and ride right after
that rascal. My mercy! are folks goin' to be held up on this trail and
robbed just as though we had no law and order? It's disgraceful!"

Then she turned her mind to another idea. "Miss Frances!" she exclaimed.
"What was in that trunk? Must have been something valuable, eh?"

"I was taking it to the Amarillo bank, to put it in the safe deposit
vaults," Frances answered, dodging the direct question.

"'Twarn't full of money?" shrieked Mrs. Peckham.

"Why, no!" laughed Frances. "We're not as rich as all that, you know."

"Well," sighed the good, if curious, woman, "I reckon there was 'nough
sight more valuables in the trunk than Captain Dan Rugley wants to lose.
Hurry up, there, John Peckham!" she shouted after her husband. "Git
after that fellow before he has a chance to break open the trunk."

"I'm going to get a fresh horse and ride back with them," Pratt
Sanderson told Frances. "And we'll get that chest, don't you fear."

"You'd better remain here and have your night's rest," advised the girl,
wonderfully calm, it would seem. "Let Mr. Peckham and his men catch that
bad fellow."

"And me sit here idle?" cried Pratt. "Not much!