"Awfully ingenious, Walter," admitted Nan, with a laugh. "But, somehow, it is not convincing."
"Oh, all right, my lady. Then we will accept Grace's statement that the cave is haunted," and he laughed likewise.
They arrived at the ranch house within the next two hours. They found everything about headquarters quite intact, for the tornado had swept past this spot without doing any damage. Mrs. Hammond met them in a manner that showed she had not become very anxious, and Rhoda had warned her friends to say little in her mother's hearing about their strange experience.
Nor was anything said to Mrs. Hammond regarding the raid by the Mexican horse thieves. She supposed her husband was absent from the house because of the tornado. That, of course, had scattered the cattle tremendously.
The girls themselves did not think much just then of the stolen horses and the posse that had started on the trail of the thieves. But another incident held their keen interest, and that connected with renegade Mexicans.
There was a letter waiting for Rhoda when she arrived—a letter addressed in a cramped and unfamiliar hand. But when she opened it she called her friends about her with:
"Do see here! What do you suppose this is? It's from that funny girl, Juanita O'Harra."
"From Juanita?" asked Nan. "More about the treasure?"
"Oh! The treasure!" added Bess, in delight. "I had almost forgotten about that."
"Listen!" exclaimed the ranch girl. "She writes better English than she speaks. I should not wonder if there were an English school down in Honoragas."