"The poor girl!" commented Nan. "I wish we could find her mother's
money."

"Say! I wish we could find all that treasure for ourselves," cried
Bess. "No use giving it all to your Juanita."

"Do you suppose, girls," said Rhoda thoughtfully, "that those men
we saw coming through the gap in the Blue Buttes were this Sivello
and his gang?"

"Are they horse thieves?" cried Bess.

"Why not?"

"And how about that fellow you were going to shoot over at the
bears' den?" asked Grace suddenly. "Why, Rhoda, that fellow lisped.
He said 'Theniorita.' I heard him."

The other girls all acclaimed Grace Mason's good memory. Spurred by
her words they all recalled now that the strange man who had so
frightened them at the mouth of the bears' den had used in his
speech "th" for "s."




CHAPTER XXIV

UNCERTAINTIES