e doctor; for
Frank resolved that, as Marmion had received his injuries during the
performance of his duty, he should have the very best of care.

Frank never closed his eyes that night. He passed the hours in pacing up
and down the porch watching for the Ranchero, who made his appearance
shortly after daylight, accompanied by the doctor. Mr. Winters's wound,
although very painful, was not a dangerous one, and after it had been
dressed by the skillful hands of the surgeon, he felt well enough to
enter into conversation with those around him.

"Now," said Frank, who had been impatiently awaiting an opportunity to
talk to his uncle, "I'd like to know what brought you back here last
night?"

"I came after the twelve thousand dollars," replied Mr. Winters. "When I
arrived in the city, I learned that Mr. Brown had left there early in
the morning to pay us a visit, taking with him the money he owed me. I
wanted to use it immediately, and as I did not know what might happen if
it should become known that there was so much money in the house, and
no one here to take care of it, I came home; but I should have lost the
money after all, if it hadn't been for you, Frank, and I might have lost
my life with it; for I believe the villain was in earnest."

"I am quite sure he was," said Frank, feeling of his neck, which still
bore the marks of the lasso in the shape of a bright red streak. "If you
had stayed away five minutes longer, I should have been hanged. O, it's
a fact!" he added, earnestly, noticing that the doctor looked at him
incredulously. "I came very near dancing on nothing, now I tell you; and
if you only knew all that has happened in this house since dark, you
wouldn't say that there was no one here to take care of that money. But,
uncle, how came you by that wound?"

"Pierre gave it to me," was the reply. "He slipped up behind me when I
was dismounting, and struck me with something. But what did he do to
you?"

"He pulled me up by the neck with my own lasso," replied Frank; "that's
what he did to me."

"The scoundrel!" exclaimed the doctor. "Tell us all about it."

Thus encouraged, Frank began and related his story, to which his
auditors listened with breathless attention. He told what he had done
with the twelve thousand dollars, where he had hidden the keys, how he
had detected Pierre watching him through the window, and how the
Ranchero had told him that Marmion was off hunting rabbits, when he was
lying bo