ieve
little Lopez was in touch with the rustlers. I mentioned that word
just on purpose to see if he would turn red, or give himself away."

"And did he?" asked the other, quickly.

"Well," replied Bob, "not so you could notice; but then he seemed such
a smart chap, like as not he knew how to hide his feelings. He looked
frightened when we talked of wanting him to stay with us. Mark me,
there's a heap of mystery bound up in that little fellow."

"He sure puzzles me, all right," remarked Frank. "Did you notice how
he had a silk handkerchief bound around his head, regular Mex fashion?"

"Sure I did," laughed Bob, without glancing up, as he used his knife
industriously after the fashion set by his chum. "And I also took
notice that he had a fine, glossy bunch of hair under that same colored
silk bandana."

"Great governor!" ejaculated Frank, suddenly.

"What's the matter--you didn't cut yourself, I hope?" demanded his
comrade, uneasily, starting up.

"Shucks! no. Something just struck me, that's all," replied Frank,
with an air of disgust, and a quick look up the gully where the little
Mexican had last been seen.

"Oh! Is that so?" mocked Bob. "Must have hurt right bad then, to make
you peep like that. Now, I reckon it might have been something about
Lopez?" for he had noted that hasty glance, and the disappointed frown.

"That's just what it was, Bob," Frank continued, in an even tone.
"Fact is, I just remembered who Lopez put me in mind of. Only perhaps
you'll laugh when I tell you. Remember that poor little girl Peg Grant
was cuffing when you knocked him down? Well, if you took that colored
handkerchief off Lopez, and let his black hair fall down, I give you my
word he'd be a ringer for that Mexican child!"

Bob stared as if dazed, and then the light of a great discovery dawned
upon him.

"Say, Frank!" he exclaimed presently. "Honest Indian, now, I believe
you've sure struck pay dirt, and that's what!"

CHAPTER IX

WHAT HAPPENED TO PEG

"Then you think the same as I do, eh, Bob?" asked the saddle boy, as if
pleased.

"Well, now a heap of things seem to point that way, Frank," replied the
other, slowly. "Only for the life of me I can't get it through my poor
old head just why a girl like that would want to carry on in such a
queer way."

"Nor me, either," laughed his chum. "That's something else for us to
lie awake nights puzzling our wits over. Everything around this
Thunder M