tatement. She loved the Ranger,
but that was not all of her reason.

"His work?" I echoed. "Do you want him to succeed in it?"

"With all my heart," she said, with a white glow on her face.

"My God!" I ejaculated. I just could not help it. I felt Sally's small
fingers clutching my arm like sharp pincers. I bit my lips to keep them
shut. What if Steele had heard her say that? Poor, noble,
justice-loving, blind girl! She knew even less than I hoped. I forced my
thought to the question immediately at hand. She gloried in the Ranger's
work. She wanted with all her heart to see him succeed in it. She had a
woman's pride in his manliness. Perhaps, with a woman's complex,
incomprehensible motive, she wanted Steele to be shown to her in all the
power that made him hated and feared by lawless men. She had finally
accepted the wild life of this border as something terrible and
inevitable, but passing. Steele was one of the strange and great and
misunderstood men who were making that wild life pass.

For the first time I realized that Miss Sampson, through sharpened eyes
of love, saw Steele as he really was--a wonderful and necessary
violence. Her intelligence and sympathy had enabled her to see through
defamation and the false records following a Ranger; she had had no
choice but to love him; and then a woman's glory in a work that freed
men, saved women, and made children happy effaced forever the horror of
a few dark deeds of blood.

"Miss Sampson, I must tell you first," I began, and hesitated--"that I'm
not a cowboy. My wild stunts, my drinking and gaming--these were all
pretense."

"Indeed! I am very glad to hear it. And was Sally in your confidence?"

"Only lately. I am a United States deputy marshal in the service of
Steele."

She gave a slight start, but did not raise her head.

"I have deceived you. But, all the same, I've been your friend. I ask
you to respect my secret a little while. I'm telling you because
otherwise my relation to Steele yesterday would not be plain. Now, if
you and Sally will use this blanket, make yourselves more comfortable
seats, I'll begin my story."

Miss Sampson allowed me to arrange a place for her where she could rest
at ease, but Sally returned to my side and stayed there. She was an
enigma to-day--pale, brooding, silent--and she never looked at me except
when my face was half averted.

"Well," I began, "night before last Steele and I lay hidden among the
rocks near the edge