ts me. She is at the ranch."

"But you are acting under her orders?"

"If the _senor_ pleases."

Dick turned his back to the wall again. His heart was bitter within him.
He had thought her a sportsman, every inch a thoroughbred. But she had
set her peons to spy on him and to attack him--ten to one in their
favor--so that she might force him to sign away his rights to her. Very
well. He would show her whether she could drive him to surrender,
whether she could starve him into doing what he did not want to do.

The younger Mexican wakened Sebastian late in the afternoon and left him
to guard the prisoner while he went into the town to hear what rumors
were flying about the affair. About an hour later he returned, bringing
with him some provisions, a newspaper, and a handbill. The latter he
tossed to Gordon.

"Senor, I never saw five hundred dollars dangling within reach before.
Shall I go to your friend and give him information?" asked Pablo.

Dick read the poster through with interest. "Good old Steve. He's
getting busy. Inside of twenty-four hours he'll ferret out this spot."

"It may be too late," Pablo flung back significantly. "If they press us
hard we'll finish the job and make a run for it."

They were talking in Spanish, as they did most of the time. The prisoner
read aloud the offer on the handbill.

"Please notice that I'm worth no more alive than you are if I'm dead. I
reckon this town is full of friends of yours anxious to earn five
hundred plunks by giving a little information. Let me ask a question of
you. Suppose you do finish the job and hit the trail. Where would you
go?"

"The hills are full of pockets. We could hide and watch a chance to get
out of the country."

"We wouldn't have to hide. Jesu Cristo, who would know we did it?"
chipped in Sebastian roughly.

"Everybody will know it soon. You made a bad mistake when you didn't
bump me off at the start. All your friends that helped bushwhack me will
itch to get that five hundred, Sebastian. As to hiding--well, I was a
ranger once. Offer a reward, and everybody is on the jump to earn it.
The way these hills are being combed this week by anxious man-hunters
you'd never reach your cache."

"Maybe we would and maybe we wouldn't. We'll have to take a chance on
that," replied the bearded Mexican sullenly.

To their prisoner it was plain that the men were I growing more anxious
every hour. They regretted the course they had followed and yet cou