onsisted of a large room with adobe
walls, a rude bar of boards, piles of kegs in a corner, a stove, and a
few tables with chairs.

Steele required only one blow for each article he struck, and he
demolished it. He stove in the head of each keg.

When the dark liquor gurgled out, Martin cursed, and the crowd followed
suit. That was a loss!

The little cattleman, holding the men covered, backed them out of the
room, Martin needing a plain, stern word to put him out entirely. I went
out, too, for I did not want to miss any moves on the part of that gang.

Close behind me came the cattleman, the kind of cool, nervy Texan I
liked. He had Martin well judged, too, for there was no evidence of any
bold resistance.

But there were shouts and loud acclamations; and these, with the
crashing blows of Steele's ax, brought a curious and growing addition to
the crowd.

Soon sodden thuds from inside the saloon and red dust pouring out the
door told that Steele was attacking the walls of Martin's place. Those
adobe bricks when old and crumbly were easily demolished.

Steele made short work of the back wall, and then he smashed out half of
the front of the building. That seemed to satisfy him.

When he stepped out of the dust he was wet with sweat, dirty, and
disheveled, hot with his exertion--a man whose great stature and
muscular development expressed a wonderful physical strength and energy.
And his somber face, with the big gray eyes, like open furnaces,
expressed a passion equal to his strength.

Perhaps only then did wild and lawless Linrock grasp the real
significance of this Ranger.

Steele threw the ax at Martin's feet.

"Martin, don't reopen here," he said curtly. "Don't start another place
in Linrock. If you do--jail at Austin for years."

Martin, livid and scowling, yet seemingly dazed with what had occurred,
slunk away, accompanied by his cronies. Steele took the money I had
appropriated, returned to me what I had lost, did likewise with the
cattleman, and then, taking out the sum named by Mrs. Price, he divided
the balance with the other players who had been in the game.

Then he stalked off through the crowd as if he knew that men who slunk
from facing him would not have nerve enough to attack him even from
behind.

"Wal, damn me!" ejaculated the little cattleman in mingled admiration
and satisfaction. "So thet's that Texas Ranger, Steele, hey? Never seen
him before. All Texas, thet Ranger!"

I lingere