reaking one of Mr. Winters's wild horses to the saddle. He had
smiled at times, as he would have smiled at the efforts of the horse to
escape, and the thought that he should fail in his object had never
entered his head. He had been certain that he could frighten or torture
Frank into revealing the hiding-place of the office key; but now he
began to believe that he had reckoned without his host. He was
astonished and enraged at the wonderful firmness displayed by his
prisoner. He had never imagined that this sixteen-year-old boy would
prove an obstacle too great to be overcome.

"You are the most obstinate colt I ever tried to manage," said Pierre,
in a voice choked with passion; "but I'll break one of two things--your
spirit or your neck; it makes no difference to me which."

Without waiting to give his prisoner time to recover his power of
speech, the Ranchero wound the lariat around his hands, and was about to
pull him up again, when he was startled by the clatter of a horse's
hoofs in the court.

The sound worked a great change in Pierre. As if by magic, the savage
scowl faded from his face, and he stood for an instant the very picture
of terror. All thoughts of the twelve thousand dollars, and the
vengeance he had determined to wreak upon his prisoner, were banished
from his mind, and gave place to the desire to escape from the house as
secretly and speedily as possible.

"Who can that be?" he muttered, dropping the lasso, and throwing a
frightened glance ever his shoulder toward the door.

"I'm sure I don't know," said Frank, speaking with the greatest
difficulty; "and I don't care who it is, if he will only make a prisoner
of you."

The Ranchero scowled fiercely upon his plucky captive, hesitated a
moment, as if he had half a mind to be revenged upon him before he left
the house, and then, catching up his knife, and extinguishing the lamp,
he jerked open one of the windows, and disappeared in the darkness.

Frank was no less astonished than delighted at his unexpected
deliverance. He tried to shout, to attract the attention of the unknown
horseman, but all his efforts were unavailing. His attempts to release
his hands, however, which he commenced the instant the Ranchero left the
room, were more successful. Pierre's carelessness in tying the knots was
a point in his favor then; for, in less time than it takes to record the
fact, Frank was free. He threw the noose off his neck, pulled the lasso
down from t