ame. He was with a crowd of regular
bandits, we found out. And they were aiming to clean up Senor Milo
Morales' _hacienda_.

"We got onto their plans, and we rode hard to the _hacienda_ to
head them off. We knew the old Spaniard--as fine a Castilian gentleman
as ever stepped in shoe-leather.

"We stopped with him a while, beat off the bandits, and captured our
man. After everything quieted down (as we thought) we started for the
Border with the prisoner. Senor Morales was an old man, without chick or
child, and not a relative in the world to leave his wealth to. His was
one of the few Castilian families that had run out. Neither in Mexico
nor in Spain did he have a blood tie.

"His vast estates he had already willed to the Church. Such faithful
servants as he had (and they were few, for the _peon_ is not noted
for gratitude) he had already taken care of.

"Lon and I had saved his life as well as his personal property, he was
good enough to say, and he showed us this treasure chest and what was in
it. When he passed on, he said, it should be ours if we were fixed so we
could get it before the Mexican authorities stepped in and grabbed it
all, or before bandits cleaned out the _hacienda_. It was a toss-up
in those days between the two, which was the most voracious!

"Well, Frances, that's how it stood when we rode away with Simon Hawkins
lashed to a pony between us. Before we reached the river we heard of a
big band of outlaws that had come down from the Sierras and were
trailing over toward Morales'.

"We hurried back, leaving Simon staked down in a hide-out we knew of.
But Lon and I were too late," said the old Captain, shaking his head
sadly. "Those scoundrels had got there ahead of us, led by the men we
had first beaten off, and they had done their worst.

"The good old Senor--as harmless and lovely a soul as ever lived--had
been brutally murdered. One or two of his servants had been killed,
too--for appearance's sake, I suppose. The others, especially the
_vaqueros_, had joined the outlaws, and the _hacienda_ was
being looted.

"But Lon and I took a chance, stole in by night, found the treasure
chest, and slipped away with it. I went back alone before dawn, found a
six-mule team already loaded with household stuff and drove off with it,
thus stealing from the thieves.

"A good many of these fine old things we have here were on that wagon. I
decided that they belonged to me as much as to anybody. Get them o