und and muzzled in some out-of-the-way place. Then he explained
how the robber had overpowered him while he was reading, how he had
searched his pockets for the keys, and pulled him up by the neck because
he refused to tell where he had hidden them, and how he was on the very
point of hanging him in earnest when the arrival of Uncle James alarmed
him. Mr. Winters was astonished, and so was the doctor, who patted Frank
on the head, and said:

"You're a chip of the old block. And did you not tell him where you had
put the key?"

"No, sir;" was the answer. "He choked me pretty hard, though, and my
throat feels funny yet."

The boy having finished his story, Mr. Winters took it up where he left
off, and told the doctor how Frank had rescued him from the robber, and
how hard he had worked to effect his capture, and all who heard it
declared that he was a hero.

CHAPTER VII.

FRANK MEETS A HIGHWAYMAN.

Frank passed the next day in making up for the sleep he had lost the
night before. About three o'clock in the afternoon he arose refreshed,
and visited his uncle, whom he found fast asleep. Now that Archie was
gone, the old house was quiet and lonesome--too much so, indeed, to suit
Frank, who, after trying in vain to find some way to amuse himself until
supper time, saddled Roderick, and set out for a short gallop over the
prairie. As he was about to mount his horse, Marmion came out of the
court, and frisked about his master as lively as ever, apparently none
the worse for the ugly-looking wounds he had received during his
encounter with the robber.

"Go home, sir," said Frank. "Don't you know that you are under the
doctor's care?"

If Marmion did know it, he didn't bother his head about it. He had a
will of his own; and having always been permitted to accompany his
master wherever he went, he did not feel disposed to remain behind.
Instead of obeying the command to go home, he ran on before, and Frank
made no further attempts to drive him back.

Frank, having by this time become well acquainted with the country for
twenty miles around his uncle's rancho, knew where he wanted to go, and
about an hour after he left home, he was stretched at full length beside
a spring among the mountains, where he and his friends often camped to
eat their dinner during their hunting expeditions. Roderick stood close
by, lazily cropping the grass, but Marmion was not in sight. The last
time his master saw him, he was trying t