e Jack Roberts with a proposition. "I've found out that Homer
Dinsmore has a girl in Tascosa. She's a Mexican. I know about her
through Tony Alviro. It seems she's a cousin of Bonita, the girl Tony
is going to marry. About once a week Dinsmore rides into town at night,
ties his horse in the brush back of her house, and goes in to see her.
If you say so, Chief, I'll make it my business to be there when he
comes."

"Need any help, do you reckon?"

"No. I'll have to hide out in the mesquite. One man will be better on
that job than two."

"All right, son. You know yore job. Get him."

That was all the warrant Jack wanted or needed. He returned to Tascosa
and made his preparations.

Every night after dark he slipped out of town by the north road till he
was on the open prairie, then swung round in a semicircle skirting the
lights of the settlement. He had arranged a blind in the brush from
which he could see the back of the Menendez "soddy." Occasionally he
comforted himself with a cautiously smoked cigarette, but mostly he lay
patiently watching the trap that was to lure his prey. At one o'clock
each morning he rose, returned on his beat, went to bed, and fell
instantly asleep.

On the fifth night there was a variation of the programme.

It was between nine and ten o'clock that Jack heard the hoot of an owl.
He sat up instantly, eyes and ears keyed for action.

The back door of the sod-house opened, and through the night stillness
floated the faint strumming of a guitar. Jack did not doubt that it was
the answering signal to show that all was safe.

A man crept forward from the mesquite and disappeared inside the house.

Through the brush the Ranger snaked his way to the point from which the
hooting of the owl had come. A bronco was tethered to a bush. An
examination showed that the horse had been ridden far, but not too fast.

Jack was satisfied the man had come alone.

A faint trail wound in and out among the mesquite and the cactus to the
house. Beside this trail, behind a clump of prickly pear, the Ranger sat
down and waited. The hour-hand of his watch crept to ten, to eleven, to
twelve. Roberts rose occasionally, stretched himself to avoid any chance
of cramped muscles, and counted stars by way of entertainment. He had
spent more diverting evenings, but there was a good chance that the fag
end of this one would be lively enough to compensate.

Shortly after midnight a shaft of light reached out from the