"Nothing at all. I only want you to answer my questions. Did the raiders run off any of my cattle?"
"They run 'em all off; but Zeke, he put the settlers on the trail an' got 'em all back agin. Mighty pretty herd it is, too, gents. Three hundred head of 'em, an' all fit for market."
"You remember the night these gentlemen came here to punish Ned, and you assisted me to get him out of the house before they arrived, do you not?"
"I ain't likely to forget it," replied Jake, drawing himself up to his full height, and looking defiantly at the two horsemen, as if to say that if he and George had done anything wrong in assisting Ned in his extremity, and they felt like punishing them for it, they (Mr. Lowry and Joe) were quite welcome to attempt it.
"Have you any idea who it was that met these men before they reached the rancho, and sent them off toward Palos on a wild-goose chase?"
"I know who it was; it was Philip."
"Where was the horse at the time?"
"He was across the Rio, most likely. But if he was there, I don't know how you got him. Howsomever, I do know, gents, that he went off with the Greasers on the night they jumped down on this rancho."
"How do you know that it was Philip who sent them off towards Palos?"
The herdsman suddenly lost his defiant attitude, and became almost cringing.