wait-in' thar?" he called out
in a husky undertone.

Todd glanced up, and took his pipe from his mouth; it was now fairly
alight.

"Kase it be Chrismus Eve, Tobe," he said, gravely.

The ranger stared for a moment; then came forward and gave the fodder
to the mare, pausing now and then and looking with oblique distrust down
upon Luke Todd as he smoked his pipe.

"I want ter tell ye, Tobe, ez some o' the mounting boys air a-sarchin
fur ye outside."

"Who air they?" asked the ranger, calmly.

His tone was so natural, his manner so unsuspecting, that a new doubt
began to stir in Luke Todd's mind.

"What ails ye ter keep the mare down hyar, Tobe?" he asked, suddenly.
"Tears like ter me ez that be powerful comical."

"Kase," said Tobe, reasonably, "some durned horse-thieves kem arter her
one night. I fired at t'em. I hain't hearn on 'em sence. An' so I jes
hid the mare."

Todd was puzzled. He shifted his pipe in his mouth. Finally he said:
"Some folks 'lowed ez ye hed no right ter take up that mare, bein' ez ye
war the ranger."

Tobe Gryce whirled round abruptly. "What war I a-goin' ter do, then?
Feed the critter fur nuthin till the triflin' scamp ez owned her kem
arter her? I couldn't work her 'thout takin' her up an' hevin her
appraised. Thar's a law agin sech. An' I couldn't git somebody ter toll
her off an' take her up. That ain't fair. What ought I ter hev done?"

"Wa'al," said Luke, drifting into argument, "the town-folks 'low ez ye
hev got nuthin ter prove it by, the stray-book an' records bein' burnt.
The town-folks 'low ez ye can't prove by writin' an' sech ez ye
ever tried ter find the owner." "The town-folks air fairly sodden in
foolishness," exclaimed the ranger, indignantly.

He drew from his ample pocket a roll of ragged newspapers, and pointed
with his great thumb at a paragraph. And Luke Todd read by the light
of the lantern the advertisement and description of the estray printed
according to law in the nearest newspaper.

The newspaper was so infrequent a factor in the lives of the mountain
gossips that this refutation of their theory had never occurred to them.

The sheet was trembling in Luke Todd's hand; his eyes filled. The
cavern with its black distances, its walls close at hand sparkling with
delicate points of whitest light; the yellow flare of the lantern; the
grotesque shadows on the ground; the fair little girl with her golden
hair; the sleek black mare; the burly figure of the ra