ubject apparently. "Boy, I've been in hell ever since
Sullivan rode in with the bad news. My God! how I suffered till I saw my
little trick standing there alive and well."

The Ranger nodded. He thought he knew what Wadley was driving toward.
But he was resolved to give him no help. He must make his own plea.

"You helped save her, Jack. That's all right. I reckon you care for her
too. Any man would 'a' done what you did. But Dinsmore, he did a whole
lot more 'n you. When he was hotfooting it to escape from you, he
turned round an' started to bring her back to the ranch. Steve Gurley,
he said to take 'Mona along with 'em to the canon. You know what that
hellhound meant. But Dinsmore wouldn't stand for that. He said she was
entitled to be took home. Well, you know how the 'Paches cut 'em off."

"Yes. That's how we figured it out," said Roberts.

"Her hawss stepped into a prairie-dog hole an' broke its leg. Dinsmore
stopped an' swung her up behind him, the 'Paches gainin' every jump of
the road. Oncet they reached Palo Duro he stood off the devils till she
reached the ledge. Jack, we're lucky that a man like Homer Dinsmore was
beside her yesterday, don't you reckon?"

"I reckon." Tiny beads of sweat stood on the forehead of the boy. He
knew now what was coming.

"Good enough. Well, Jack, I reckon we cayn't take Dinsmore in to be
hanged. That wouldn't be human, would it?"

The roof of the Ranger's mouth was dry. He looked away across the
rolling waves of prairie while the cattleman waited for his answer.
Every impulse of desire in him leaned toward the argument Wadley was
making. His love for Ramona, his gratitude to Dinsmore, his keen desire
to meet halfway the man who was to be his father-in-law and had
accepted the prospect so generously, his boyish admiration for the thing
that the outlaw had done, all tugged mightily at him.

"An' look a-here," went on the cattleman, "you got to keep in mind that
you never would 'a' got Dinsmore this trip in kingdom come if he hadn't
stopped to save 'Mona. He'd 'a' kep' right up the canon till he was sure
enough lost. It would be a damned mean trick for you to take a man in to
be hanged because he had risked his life to save the girl you claim to
love."

"You make me feel like a yellow hound, Mr. Wadley," admitted Roberts.
"But what am I to do? When I joined the Rangers I swore to enforce the
law. You know how it is in the force. We've got no friends when we're
sent out to g