ountain just seems to be plastered with mystery--who little
Lopez is; what he, or she may be doing away off here in the canyons of
the Rockies; and more particularly the mystery of the mountain that the
reds look on as sacred; where Mendoza and his band of rustlers have
gone with those stolen horses; and also who the prospectors can be that
this pile of grub was meant for--it's all a blank, that's what!"

"Say, I guess that's pretty near the way it sizes up," grumbled Bob.
"I don't like to run against a stone wall like this. If I was alone
now, d'ye know what I'd likely be doing, Frank?"

"Well, say, perhaps I might hit close to the bull's-eye, since I've
come to know you pretty well these days, Bob," replied the other. "I
wouldn't be surprised one bit but what you'd go rushing after Lopez,
and demand to know all about it. But Bob, I look at it in another
light. That's his own private business."

"I suppose so; and I was brought up to mind my own affairs, too," said
Bob.

"Wouldn't you put up a great howl now," continued Frank, "if somebody
grabbed hold of you, and insisted on your giving him the whole story of
your life, where you were born, what your dad did for a living, when
you cut your first tooth, how much it cost your father to let you
gallop around the country in the saddle with me, and all that? Say,
honest now, would you knuckle down like a meek kid; or give the
questioner to understand that he was poking his nose into affairs that
didn't concern him one whit?"

Thereupon Bob laughed heartily.

"I give up, Frank," he admitted. "You go at a fellow, and put him in a
hole as a lawyer might. We'll just let little Lopez alone, no matter
whether he's girl or boy; the grub-getter of prospectors; or agent for
that sly Mendoza, the cattle-rustler. And, on the whole, I reckon
we've got about all the business we can attend to right now on our
hands."

"That sure sounds good to me, Bob," said Frank, turning once more to
get his horse, the task of securing the grizzly's claws having been
completed.

Naturally enough, while the excitement was on, both horses had
exhibited the greatest alarm, even though they were out of sight behind
some trees. The near presence of that terrible monster had caused them
to strain at their ropes, prance wildly, and try in every way possible
to break loose; but those lariats had been selected with a view to
wonderful strength. After the death of the grizzly the animals had