o somebody; and one looked like nothing; and the other one had on
corkscrew pants and spoke in a tone of voice. I never liked a man who
spoke in a tone of voice.

"I'm skipping over much what followed; but one afternoon when I rides
up to the ranch house to get some orders about a drove of beeves that
was to be shipped, I hears something like a popgun go off. I waits
at the hitching rack, not wishing to intrude on private affairs. In
a little while Luke comes out and gives some orders to some of his
Mexican hands, and they go and hitch up sundry and divers vehicles;
and mighty soon out comes one of the sisters or so and some of the two
or three men. But two of the two or three men carries between 'em the
corkscrew man who spoke in a tone of voice, and lays him flat down in
one of the wagons. And they all might have been seen wending their way
away.

"'Bud,' says Luke to me, 'I want you to fix up a little and go up to
San Antone with me.'

"'Let me get on my Mexican spurs,' says I, 'and I'm your company.'

"One of the sisters or so seems to have stayed at the ranch with
Mrs. Summers and the kid. We rides to Encinal and catches the
International, and hits San Antone in the morning. After breakfast
Luke steers me straight to the office of a lawyer. They go in a room
and talk and then come out.

"'Oh, there won't be any trouble, Mr. Summers,' says the lawyer. 'I'll
acquaint Judge Simmons with the facts to-day; and the matter will be
put through as promptly as possible. Law and order reigns in this
state as swift and sure as any in the country.'

"'I'll wait for the decree if it won't take over half an hour,' says
Luke.

"'Tut, tut,' says the lawyer man. 'Law must take its course. Come back
day after to-morrow at half-past nine.'

"At that time me and Luke shows up, and the lawyer hands him a folded
document. And Luke writes him out a check.

"On the sidewalk Luke holds up the paper to me and puts a finger the
size of a kitchen door latch on it and says:

"'Decree of ab-so-lute divorce with cus-to-dy of the child.'

"'Skipping over much what has happened of which I know nothing,' says
I, 'it looks to me like a split. Couldn't the lawyer man have made it
a strike for you?'

"'Bud,' says he, in a pained style, 'that child is the one thing I
have to live for. _She_ may go; but the boy is mine!--think of it--I
have cus-to-dy of the child.'

"'All right,' says I. 'If it's the law, let's abide by it. But I
think,