"Did you count 'em?" he asked his daughter.

"There must have been all of a dozen. I could not make out the
number exactly," Rhoda said.

"Well," her father grumbled, shaking his shaggy head, "we've got
our hands full just now, that's sure. But we don't need to worry
about stranglers while there's so many of us down here. And there
are plenty of the boys up at the house and with the cows. Reckon
it's all right."

"Do you suppose," whispered Nan, "that those Mexicans have come
over here for some bad purpose, Rhoda?"

"Maybe they are bandits, like that Lobarto you told us about," said
Grace.

"Maybe they will bury treasure somewhere around here," Bess put in
eagerly. "And I say, Rhoda: When are we going to get up that party
to hunt for Lobarto's treasure?"

"Not until after this round-up, that's sure," laughed the girl of
Rose Ranch.

The young people went down to the corrals and branding pens and
were told, in the course of time, by Hesitation Kane that the
corrals would accommodate a thousand horses at once. It was
believed that three days would be occupied in handling the great
mob of stock that had been driven down from the hills.