auder could get into the inner court was by climbing the walls and
getting over the roof, and as the latter extended four feet beyond the
second-story walls, such a feat was well-nigh impossible.

The cement walls themselves were so thick that they seemed impregnable
even to cannon. The roof was of slates. And, as has been pointed out
already, all the outer first-floor windows, and all those reached from
the porch roof, were barred.

Frances knew that her father had been seriously troubled to-night by the
appearance of the strange and unseen tramp in the yard, and the fact
that the arrival of that same individual had not been reported from the
men's quarters.

Captain Rugley telephoned and learned from his foreman, Silent Sam
Harding, that nobody had come to the bunk-house that night asking for
lodging and food.

Frances was about to seek her bed. She yawned, curled her bare toes up
closer in the robe, and shivered luxuriously as the night air breathed
in upon her. In another moment she would pop in between the blankets and
cuddle down----

Something snapped! It was outside, not in!

Frances was wide awake on the instant. Her eyelids that had been so
drowsy were propped apart--not by fear, but by excitement.

She had lived a life which had sharpened her physical perceptions to a
fine point. She had no trouble in locating the sound that had so
startled her. Somebody was climbing the vine at the corner of the
veranda roof, not twenty feet from her window. She crouched back, well
sheltered in the shadow, but able to see anything that appeared
silhouetted between her window and the dark curtain of the night.

There was no light in the room behind her; indeed every lamp in the
ranch-house had been extinguished some time before. It was evident that
this marauder--whoever he was--had waited for the quietude of sleep to
fall upon the place.

Back in the room at the head of Frances' bed hung her belt with the
holster pistol she wore when riding about the ranges. In these days it
was considered perfectly safe for a girl to ride alone, save that
coyotes sometimes came within range, or such a savage creature as had
been the introduction of Pratt Sanderson and herself so recently. It was
the duty of everybody on the ranges to shoot and kill these "varmints,"
if they could.

Frances did not even think of this weapon now. She did not fear the
unknown; only that the mystery of the night, and of his secret pursuit,
surround