not love her new home, and if her cousin did not enjoy her
sojourn there. From a distance I saw the girls approaching with Wright,
and not wishing to meet them I sheered off.

When the sun had set I went down to the town with the intention of
finding Steele.

This task, considering I dared not make inquiries and must approach him
secretly, might turn out to be anything but easy.

While it was still light, I strolled up and down the main street. When
darkness set in I went into a hotel, bought cigars, sat around and
watched, without any clue.

Then I went into the next place. This was of a rough crude exterior, but
the inside was comparatively pretentious, and ablaze with lights.

It was full of men, coming and going--a dusty-booted crowd that smelled
of horses and smoke.

I sat down for a while, with wide eyes and open ears. Then I hunted up a
saloon, where most of the guests had been or were going. I found a great
square room lighted by six huge lamps, a bar at one side, and all the
floor space taken up by tables and chairs.

This must have been the gambling resort mentioned in the Ranger's letter
to Captain Neal and the one rumored to be owned by the mayor of Linrock.
This was the only gambling place of any size in southern Texas in which
I had noted the absence of Mexicans. There was some card playing going
on at this moment.

I stayed in there for a while, and knew that strangers were too common
in Linrock to be conspicuous. But I saw no man whom I could have taken
for Steele.

Then I went out.

It had often been a boast of mine that I could not spend an hour in
a strange town, or walk a block along a dark street, without having
something happen out of the ordinary.

Mine was an experiencing nature. Some people called this luck. But it
was my private opinion that things gravitated my way because I looked
and listened for them.

However, upon the occasion of my first day and evening in Linrock it
appeared, despite my vigilance and inquisitiveness, that here was to be
an exception.

This thought came to me just before I reached the last lighted place in
the block, a little dingy restaurant, out of which at the moment, a
tall, dark form passed. It disappeared in the gloom. I saw a man sitting
on the low steps, and another standing in the door.

"That was the fellow the whole town's talkin' about--the Ranger," said
one man.

Like a shot I halted in the shadow, where I had not been seen.

"Sho! Ain