here very few know. Many supposed, but few knew. I've shut the
mouths of those few. That blank line in the report is for a supposed and
mysterious leader who vanished. Jack Blome, the reputed leader, and all
his lawless associates are dead. Linrock is free and safe now, its
future in the hands of roused, determined, and capable men."

We were all silent after Steele ceased talking. I did not believe Diane
could have spoken just then. If sorrow and joy could be perfectly
blended in one beautiful expression, they were in her face. By and by I
dared to say: "And Vaughn Steele, Lone Star Ranger, has seen his last
service!"

"Yes," he replied with emotion.

Sally stirred and turned a strange look upon us all. "In that case,
then, if I am not mistaken, there were two Lone Star Rangers--and both
have seen their last service!" Sally's lips were trembling, the way they
trembled when it was impossible to tell whether she was about to laugh
or cry. The first hint of her old combative spirit or her old archness!
A wave of feeling rushed over me, too much for me in my weakened
condition. Dizzy, racked with sudden shooting pains, I closed my eyes;
and the happiness I embraced was all the sweeter for the suffering it
entailed. Something beat into my ears, into my brain, with the
regularity and rapid beat of pulsing blood--not too late! Not too late!

From that moment the ride grew different, even as I improved with leaps
and bounds. Sanderson behind us, the long gray barren between Sanderson
and the Rio Grande behind us, Del Rio for two days, where I was able to
sit up, all behind us--and the eastward trail to Uvalde before us! We
were the only passengers on the stage from Del Rio to Uvalde. Perhaps
Steele had so managed the journey. Assuredly he had become an individual
with whom traveling under the curious gaze of strangers would have been
embarrassing. He was most desperately in love. And Diane, all in a few
days, while riding these long, tedious miles, ordinarily so fatiguing,
had renewed her bloom, had gained what she had lost. She, too, was
desperately in love, though she remembered her identity occasionally,
and that she was in the company of a badly shot-up young man and a
broken-hearted cousin.

Most of the time Diane and Steele rode on top of the stage. When they
did ride inside their conduct was not unbecoming; indeed, it was sweet
to watch; yet it loosed the fires of jealous rage and longing in me; and
certainly had