“It’s that awful Philo Marsh,” said Tavia. “You don’t understand. She had promised to sign the papers for him this morning, and then she heard something, so she wouldn’t. He was here with a man named Biggs——”
“I know the scamp,” growled Lance.
“Well! they were just as mad!” pursued Tavia.
“So Philo has shown his hand, has he?” said Lance Petterby, slowly. “The ornery cur! I come over here to tell yuh aunt more thet I heard last night. Philo’s been workin’ for the mining company all the time.”
“Don’t stop here talking!” urged Tavia. “We must go after them. Doro and I will get our ponies.”
“Ain’t Hank here?” demanded Lance.
“Mr. Ledger has gone to see about something at the other end of the range,” Dorothy said, in answer to this question.
“But there’s some of the Greasers here—and them boys?”
“Oh, yes!” cried Dorothy, and she told him where they were at work down in the branding pen.
“We’d better go,” admitted the cowboy. “I understand there is going to be something doing up in the hills this very day.”