ur.

Ramona sat in the shadow of the honeysuckle vines. She did not say
anything and Ridley could not see her face well. He did not know how
grateful she was for his championship of his friend. She knew he was
right and her heart throbbed gladly because of it. She wanted to feel
that she and her father were wrong and had done an injustice to the man
she loved.

Captain Ellison came down the walk, his spurs jingling. In spite of his
years the little officer carried himself jauntily, his wide hat tilted
at a rakish angle. Just now he was worried.

As soon as he knew the subject of conversation, he plunged in, a hot
partisan, eager for battle. Inside of two minutes he and Wadley were
engaged in one of their periodical semi-quarrels.

"You're wrong, Clint," the Captain announced dogmatically. "You're
wrong, like you 'most always are. You're that bullheaded you cayn't see
it. But I'm surprised at you, 'Mona. If Jack had been a private citizen,
you wouldn't needed to ask him to turn loose Dinsmore. But he wasn't.
That's the stuff my Rangers are made of. They play the hand out. The boy
did just right."

"That's what you say, Jim. You drill these boys of yours till they ain't
hardly human. I'm for law an' order. You know that. But I don't go out
of my head about them the way you do. 'Mona an' I have got some sense.
We're reasonable human bein's." To demonstrate his possession of this
last quality Clint brought his fist down on the arm of the chair so hard
that it cracked.

From out of the darkness Ramona made her contribution in a voice not
quite steady.

"We're wrong, Dad. We've been wrong all the time. I didn't see it just
at first, and then I didn't want to admit it even to myself. But I'm
glad now we are." She turned to Captain Ellison a little tremulously.
"Will you tell him, Uncle Jim, that I want to see him?"

"You're a little gentleman, 'Mona. I always said you were." The Captain
reached out and pressed her hand. "I'll tell him when I see him. No
tellin' when that'll be. Jack resigned to-day. He's got some fool notion
in his head. I'm kinda worried about him."

The girl's heart fluttered. "Worried? What ... what do you think he's
going to do?"

The Captain shook his head. "Cayn't tell you, because I don't know. But
he's up to somethin'. He acted kinda hard an' bitter."

A barefooted negro boy called in from the gate. "Cap'n Ellison there,
sah?"

He brought a note in and handed it to the officer of Ranger