"Go ahead," said Bill.
"You has right up-stairs in this same ranch a young lady what is handsome enough to make any gent fergit a wrong, an' her I most mightily wants to bring down yere."
Frank heard the words distinctly, and they gave him a start. Handsome Charley was speaking of June Arlington; there could be no doubt of that. He said June was "up-stairs in that same ranch." At last Frank had received the clue he was seeking.
More than Merry saw trouble was brewing between Charley and Bill, and now the attention of almost every person in the room was directed toward them.
Bill's face grew grim, and again his eyes narrowed and glittered.
"See yere," he said harshly, "I allows we has settled[Pg 307] the p'int in regard to her, an' so you lets it drop, Charley."
Frank knew that pistols would be out in a few seconds more. He did not wait for the men to draw and begin to shoot.
There was no flight of stairs in the room where the dance was taking place, and, therefore, he immediately decided that the stairs might be found in the back room, where the interview between Bill and Eliot Dodge had taken place. The door leading into that room was closed, but Frank slipped quickly to it, and it readily opened before his hand.
He found himself in a bare room, having but little furniture, a table, a bed, some chairs, and, as Frank had believed likely, a steep flight of stairs ran railless up one side of the room, disappearing at a dark landing above.
In a twinkling Merry was bounding lightly up those stairs, the sounds of loud and angry voices coming from the dance-room, where the music and dancing had now stopped.