o find the camp alone?" he asked. "Perhaps I
had better take you there. It is about a mile in that direction," and he
indicated the locality with a wave of his hand.

"I feel safe enough in the open air," she smiled. "It was only when that
Mexican had me cornered in a dark hallway that I felt alarmed. I was
born and brought up on the plains, and I've been to Peoria only to get
educated, as they say. I've a horse at the livery stable, and I can ride
the distance."

"May I ask how you fell in with that greaser?"

"I think he overheard me asking for my uncle at the hotel, and after
that he sent a note saying my uncle was at the place where you found me.
I saw him first on the train, where he tried his best to get some
information from me about some horses. But I told him little," concluded
the girl.

Five minutes later they parted at the livery stable, where Nellie had
left her horse, and Dick went on his way to continue his search for his
lost parent. The girl had thanked him again for what he had done and had
squeezed his hand so warmly that his heart thumped pretty hard, while
his face was flushed more than ever before.

CHAPTER VII.

OUT ON THE RIVER.

For over half an hour longer Dick tramped the streets of the city
looking for some trace of his father.

Presently he found himself down by the docks along the muddy river. The
stream was much swollen, and the few boats tied up were bumping freely
against the shore as the current swung them in.

"I wonder if father could have come down here?" he mused. "He had a
great fondness for the water when he got those strange spells."

Slowly and with eyes wide open he moved down the river shore, ready to
seize upon any evidence which might present itself.

Suddenly he uttered a cry and leaped down into a rowboat lying before,
him.

"Father's hat! I'd know it among a thousand!"

Dick was right. There on the stern seat of the craft rested the
head-covering Mortimer Arbuckle had worn ever since he had left New
York.

The tears stood in the youth's eyes as he picked up the hat and
inspected it. One side of the brim was covered with dirt, and it was
still soaked from the rain.

"Poor father! Is it possible he fell overboard?"

Dick said "fell overboard," but he thought something else. He knew as
well as anybody that his father did strange things while under the
influence of the melancholy spells which at times haunted him.

He looked up and down the stre