e afraid of Steele. Perhaps it's his nerve,
the way he faces them, the things he says, the fact that he has
mysterious allies."

"Russ, we're all with him, an' I'll gamble that the honest citizens of
Linrock will flock to him in another day. I can see signs of that. There
were twenty or more men on Hoden's list, but Steele didn't want so
many."

"We don't need any more. Morton, can you give me any idea where Steele
is?"

"Not the slightest."

"All right. I'll hunt for him. If you see him tell him to hole up, and
then you come after me. Tell him I've got our men spotted."

"Russ, if you Ranger fellows ain't wonders!" exclaimed Morton, with
shining eyes.

Steele did not show himself in town again that day. Here his cunning was
manifest. By four o'clock that afternoon Blome was drunk and he and his
rustlers went roaring up and down the street. There was some shooting,
but I did not see or hear that any one got hurt. The lawless element,
both native to Linrock and the visitors, followed in Blome's tracks from
saloon to saloon. How often had I seen this sort of procession, though
not on so large a scale, in many towns of wild Texas!

The two great and dangerous things in Linrock at the hour were whisky
and guns. Under such conditions the rustlers were capable of any mad act
of folly.

Morton and his men sent word flying around town that a fight was
imminent and all citizens should be prepared to defend their homes
against possible violence. But despite his warning I saw many
respectable citizens abroad whose quiet, unobtrusive manner and watchful
eyes and hard faces told me that when trouble began they wanted to be
there. Verily Ranger Steele had built his house of service upon a rock.
It did not seem too much to say that the next few days, perhaps hours,
would see a great change in the character and a proportionate decrease
in number of the inhabitants of this corner of Pecos County.

Morton and I were in the crowd that watched Blome, Snecker, and a dozen
other rustlers march down to Steele's jail. They had crowbars and they
had cans of giant powder, which they had appropriated from a hardware
store. If Steele had a jailer he was not in evidence. The door was
wrenched off and Bo Snecker, evidently not wholly recovered, brought
forth to his cheering comrades. Then some of the rustlers began to urge
back the pressing circle, and the word given out acted as a spur to
haste. The jail was to be blown up.

The crowd