"Well, I'm glad you're not the man who has been trying, with others of his gang, to make trouble for me," said the ranchman; "though if you had been we'd have done what was right by you. I wish you'd use your influence with your brother to have him drop this business. I'm willing to pay what's right for that land, though I have a valid claim to it. He'll lose out in the end, and the sooner he gives in the better for all of us."
"I'll tell him," said Bruce Shackmiller. "I'm sure that after he has suffered so much, and uselessly, he will give up. I will seek him out as soon as I can."
"Better rest up here for a day or so," suggested the owner of the Double X ranch. "The doctor will be here soon. He has an auto, and it doesn't take him long to get out from town."
The physician arrived shortly after that, bringing Matt, the foreman, with him, the latter having left his horse in town.
"Great blow we had," commented the doctor, as he came in to look at his patient. "Half a dozen of the skyscrapers in Sageville unroofed. Well, now, let's see what we have here."
He made a rapid examination, and said that the wound was only a scalp affair, which would soon heal if no complications set in. He dressed and bandaged it, and prepared to take his departure.
"Now we'll make you as comfortable as we can," said the ranch owner, to Shackmiller. "Stay a week if you like. On the whole it may be a good thing that we met you, for it may end all this trouble."
"I hope it doesn't do us out of a chance to get the treasure of Golden Peak," said Frank, softly.
"Oh, we'll have a try for that, anyhow," spoke Billy, and as he turned aside, Frank thought he detected a strange gleam in the eyes of Bruce Shackmiller.
"I'll do my best to influence Sam," said the man in a low voice, and then he was taken to a room that had been prepared for him.