I suppose it is exasperating to ride a forbidden, treasured horse on a forbidden, possibly dangerous night journey to rescue a man from some unknown peril, and discover that the young man is not at hand to be rescued.

Mary V seemed to find it so.

She decided that Johnny Jewel was up to some devilment, and had probably hired that man to answer the 'phone for him so her dad would not know he was gone.

He thought he was very clever, of course--putting the man up to pretending he had a cold, just to fool her dad.

Well, he had fooled her dad, all right, but there happened to be a person on the ranch he could not fool.