The prisoner's eyes flashed again as he heard this. He stood by sourly enough while the girls explained more fully to the ranchman.
"All right! All right!" growled Mr. Hammond. "If he is one of those that stampeded the steers, he'll see the inside of the jail. I'd like to catch 'em all."
The visitors made their way to bed as soon as they had eaten their late supper; but Rhoda remained with her father when he questioned the Mexican.
At first the prisoner refused to give any information about himself or his business near Rose Ranch. But being an old hand at that game, Mr. Hammond finally made him see that it would be wiser for him to reply. If he did not wish to get others into trouble, he would better try to save himself.
And it soon appeared that the young Mexican did not feel altogether kindly toward the men who had come over the Border with him—whoever they were. There had been some quarrel, and the others had abandoned him, taking even his horse with them when they did so.
"Were you with them when they ran off the Long Bow stock?" asked
Mr. Hammond.
"That was not done by us. We separated from those thieves of horse-stealers when they would put their necks in jeopardy," the Mexican said in his own tongue, which both Mr. Hammond and Rhoda understood.
"So you kept out of that, heh? Then you rode up this way?"
"Into the hills," said the other sullenly. "The country is free."
"Not to such as you unless you can give a mighty good reason for being over there. You and your friends have cost me more'n a hundred steers."