"I don't wonder so much she ran away," Ruth said, softly. "But I am sorry she did not stay here until you came, sir."
"But where is she?" chorused both the ranchman and Miss Kate, and the latter added: "Tell what you know about her departure, Ruth."
So Ruth repeated all that she had heard and seen on the night Nita disappeared from the Stone bungalow.
"And this man, Crab, can be found down yonder at the lighthouse?" demanded the ranchman, rising at the end of Ruth's story.
"He is there part of the time, sir," Miss Kate said. "He is a rather notorious character around here--a man of bad temper, I believe. Perhaps you had better go to the authorities first----"
"What authorities?" demanded the Westerner in surprise.
Bill Hicks snorted. "I don't need police in this case, ma'am," he said. "I know what to do with this here Crab when I find him. And if harm's come to my Jane Ann, so much the worse for him."
"Oh, I hope you will be patient, sir," said Miss Kate.
"Nita was not a bit afraid of him, I am sure," Ruth hastened to add. "He would not hurt her."
"No. I reckon he wants to make money out of me," grunted Bill Hicks, who did not lack shrewdness. "He sent the letter that told me she was here, and then he decoyed her away somewhere so's to hold her till I came and paid him the reward. Wal! let me git my Jane Ann back, safe and sound, and he's welcome to the five hundred dollars I offered for news of her."
"But first, Mr. Hicks," said Miss Kate, rising briskly, "you'll come to breakfast. You have been traveling all night----"
"That's right, ma'am. No chance for more than a peck at a railroad sandwich--tough critters, them!"
"Ah! here is Tom Cameron," she said, having parted the portières and found Tom just passing through the hall. "Mr. Hicks, Tom. Nita's uncle."
"Er--Mr. Bill Hicks, of the Silver Ranch!" ejaculated Tom.
"So you've hearn tell of me, too, have you, younker?" quoth the ranchman, good-naturedly. "Well, my fame's spreadin'."
"And it seems that _I_ am the only person here who did not know all about your niece," said Miss Kate Stone, drily.
"Oh, no, ma'am!" cried Tom. "It was only Ruth and Helen and I who knew anything about it. And we only suspected. You see, we found the newspaper article which told about that bully ranch, and the fun that girl had----"