secretly
glad of a ranger's presence. What he intended to do was food for great
speculation. A company of militia could not have had the effect upon the
wild element of Fairdale that Duane's presence had. It got out that he
was a gunman lightning swift on the draw. It was death to face him. He
had killed thirty men--wildest rumor of all--it was actually said of him
he had the gun-skill of Buck Duane or of Poggin.

At first there had not only been great conjecture among the vicious
element, but also a very decided checking of all kinds of action
calculated to be conspicuous to a keen-eyed ranger. At the tables, at
the bars and lounging-places Duane heard the remarks: "Who's thet ranger
after? What'll he do fust off? Is he waitin' fer somebody? Who's goin'
to draw on him fust--an' go to hell? Jest about how soon will he be
found somewheres full of lead?"

When it came out somewhere that Duane was openly cultivating the honest
stay-at-home citizens to array them in time against the other element,
then Fairdale showed its wolf-teeth. Several times Duane was shot at
in the dark and once slightly injured. Rumor had it that Poggin, the
gunman, was coming to meet him. But the lawless element did not rise up
in a mass to slay Duane on sight. It was not so much that the enemies
of the law awaited his next move, but just a slowness peculiar to
the frontier. The ranger was in their midst. He was interesting, if
formidable. He would have been welcomed at card-tables, at the bars, to
play and drink with the men who knew they were under suspicion. There
was a rude kind of good humor even in their open hostility.

Besides, one ranger or a company of rangers could not have held the
undivided attention of these men from their games and drinks and
quarrels except by some decided move. Excitement, greed, appetite were
rife in them. Duane marked, however, a striking exception to the usual
run of strangers he had been in the habit of seeing. Snecker had gone
or was under cover. Again Duane caught a vague rumor of the coming of
Poggin, yet he never seemed to arrive. Moreover, the goings-on among the
habitues of the resorts and the cowboys who came in to drink and gamble
were unusually mild in comparison with former conduct. This lull,
however, did not deceive Duane. It could not last. The wonder was that
it had lasted so long.

Duane went often to see Mrs. Laramie and her children. One afternoon
while he was there he saw Miss Longstreth a