gsters sure beat
my time. How did you get here, 'Mona?"

Clint made prompt apologies. "I was wrong, boy. I'd ought to know it by
this time, for they've all been dinnin' it at me. Shake, an' let's make
a new start."

In words it was not much, but Jack knew by the way he said it that the
cattleman meant a good deal more than he said. He shook hands gladly.

"Looks to me like Jack would make that new start in jail," snapped the
Captain. "I don't expect he can go around jail-breaking with my
prisoners an' get away with it."

"I'll go to jail with him, then," cried 'Mona quickly.

"H'mp!" The Ranger Captain softened. "It wouldn't be a prison if you
were there, honey."

Jack slipped his hand over hers in the semi-darkness. "You're whistlin',
Captain."

"I reckon you 'n' me will take a trip down to Austin to see the
Governor, Jim," Wadley said. "Don't you worry any about that prison,
'Mona."

The girl looked up into the eyes of her lover. "We're not worrying any,
Dad," she answered, smiling.

CHAPTER XLVI

LOOSE THREADS

The Governor had been himself a cattleman. Before that he had known
Ellison and Wadley during the war. Therefore he lent a friendly ear to
the tale told him by his old-time friends.

Clint did most of the talking, one leg thrown across the arm of a
leather-bound chair in the library of the Governor's house. The three
men were smoking. A mint julep was in front of each.

The story of Jack Roberts lost nothing in the telling. Both of the
Panhandle men were now partisans of his, and when the owner of the A T O
missed a point the hawk-eyed little Captain was there to stress it.

"That's all right, boys," the Governor at last broke in. "I don't doubt
he's all you say he is, but I don't see that I can do anything for him.
If he's in trouble because he deliberately helped a murderer to
escape--"

"You don't need to do a thing, Bob," interrupted Wadley. "That's just
the point. He's in no trouble unless you make it for him. All you've got
to do is shut yore eyes. I spent three hours with a pick makin' a hole
in the jail wall so as it would look like the prisoner escaped. I did a
real thorough job. Yorky, the jailer, won't talk. We got that all
fixed. There'll be no trouble a-tall unless you want the case against
Jack pushed."

"What was the use of comin' to me at all, then? Why didn't you boys keep
this under your hats?" the Governor asked.

Wadley grinned. "Because of Jim's conscience.