Part 14 (1/2)

”I--I don't know what she means,” stammered the girl from Rose Ranch.

”I guess I understand something about it,” said the quicker-witted Nan. ”She has been robbed by Lobarto, and she thinks your father has found the hidden treasure--the plunder Lobarto left behind at Rose Ranch when he was driven off six years ago.”

”You know!” exclaimed the Mexican girl confidently. ”How you know?”

”I know what you think. But that doesn't make it so,” returned Nan promptly.

”I am sure she is not right in her mind,” Rhoda sighed. ”What could she have to do with all that treasure they say Lobarto stole in Mexico and hid on our ranch?”

”Come over here and sit down--both of you,” commanded Nan, seeing that she had got the Mexican girl quieted for the time being. There was a log in the shade, and they took seats upon it. Nan said kindly to the Mexican: ”Now, please, tell us quietly and calmly what you mean.”

”Dhat Senorita Ham-mon'--”

”No, no! Begin at the beginning. Don't accuse Rhoda any more. Let us hear all about how you came to know about the treasure, and why you think it is yours.”

”Dhat I tell you soon,” said the girl quickly. ”My modder an' me--”

”Who are you? What is your name?” asked Nan.

”Juanita O'Harra.”

”Why! that's both Mexican and Irish,” gasped Nan.

”My fader a gre't, big Irisher-man--yes!” said Juanita. ”He marry my modder in Honoragas. She have fine hacienda from her papa--yes.

She--”

But to put it in more understandable English, as Nan and Rhoda did later when they talked it over with Bess and Grace Mason, Juanita O'Harra told a very interesting--indeed, quite an exciting--story about Lobarto and the lost treasure the bandit chief had carried into the Rose Ranch region.

Juanita's mother had married the Irish contractor who had died when the girl was small. Six years and more before she told this tale to the interested Nan and Rhoda, Lobarto became a scourge of the country about Honoragas. He attacked haciendas, stealing and burning, even maltreating the helpless women and children after killing their defenders.

After robbing the churches, he took all the wealth he had gathered and, with the Mexican Federal troops on his trail, ran up into the United States. How he came to grief there and had to run again with United States troops and the Rose Ranch cowboys behind him, Rhoda had already told her friends.

But that Lobarto had left all the wealth he had stolen somewhere near Rose Ranch, the Mexicans knew as well as the Americans. When captured, members of Lobarto's gang had confessed. But they had been put to death by the Mexican authorities without telling just where the great cache of plunder was.

Juanita and her mother believed that the American owner of Rose Ranch had recovered the treasure and held their share from them.

These Mexican people were both ignorant and suspicious. Juanita was very bitter against the _Americanos_, anyway. She had only come up into the States to work so as to support her mother, who remained still on the ruined plantation in Honoragas.

”I went to dhe Ranchio Rose,” said Juanita, ”and see thees senorita wit' her fader, dhe gre't Senyor Ham-mon'. He laugh at me--yes! He tell me he haf not found dhe tr-r-reasure. But I know better--”

”You do not know anything of the kind,” Nan said promptly. ”You just have a bad temper and want to hate somebody. Rhoda tells you that she knows nothing about the money and jewels your mother lost.

If they are ever found you and your mother shall have them.”

”Of course,” Rhoda added, ”we would not want anything that was not strictly ours. No matter what the law might say about 'findings, keepings,' my father is not that kind, I'd have you know. We haven't found the treasure. If we ever do, I promise you we'll write to your mother at once.”

”My modder cannot read the language you speak,” said Juanita, sullenly.

”We will have the letter written in Spanish,” promised Rhoda.