prairie. As he was about to mount his horse, Marmion came out of the
court, and frisked about his master as lively as ever, apparently none
the worse for the ugly-looking wounds he had received during his
encounter with the robber.

"Go home, sir," said Frank. "Don't you know that you are under the
doctor's care?"

If Marmion did know it, he didn't bother his head about it. He had a
will of his own; and having always been permitted to accompany his
master wherever he went, he did not feel disposed to remain behind.
Instead of obeying the command to go home, he ran on before, and Frank
made no further attempts to drive him back.

Frank, having by this time become well acquainted with the country for
twenty miles around his uncle's rancho, knew where he wanted to go, and
about an hour after he left home, he was stretched at full length beside
a spring among the mountains, where he and his friends often camped to
eat their dinner during their hunting expeditions. Roderick stood close
by, lazily cropping the grass, but Marmion was not in sight. The last
time his master saw him, he was trying to gnaw his way into a hollow log
where a rabbit had taken refuge.

Frank lay beside the spring until his increasing hunger reminded him
that it was nearly supper time, and then he mounted his horse, and
started for home. Roderick being permitted to choose his own gait,
walked slowly along a narrow bridle-path that led out of the mountains,
and Frank sat in his saddle with both hands in his pockets, his
sombrero pulled down over his eyes, and his thoughts wandering away to
the ends of the earth. He had ridden in this way about half a mile, when