orter crop of the
Mexican. Those that are indubitably of white men show signs of having
been recently taken, but none of them can be identified as the scalp of
Walt Wilder.

There is some relief in this, for his old comrades love. Walt. Still,
there is the damning evidence of the gun, which Cully declares could
only have been taken from him along with his life. How has it got into
the hands of the Horned Lizard?

"I reckon we can settle that," says the Captain of the Rangers. "The
renegade ought to know something about it."

This speech refers to Barbato, who has been taken prisoner, and about
whose disposal they have already commenced to deliberate. His beard
betrayed him as a renegade; and, the paint having been partially wiped
from his skin, all perceive that he is a white man--a Mexican. Some are
for shooting him on the spot, others propose hanging, while only a few
of the more humane advocate taking him on to the settlements and there
giving him a trial. He will have to die anyhow--that is pretty sure;
for not only as a Mexican is he their enemy, but now doubly so from
being found in league with their most detested foes, the Tenawa
Comanches.

The wretch is lying on the ground near by, shaking with fear, in spite
of the fastenings in which he is tightly held. He knows he is in dire
danger, and has only so far escaped through having surrendered to a
settler instead of to one of the Rangers.

"Let's gie him a chance o' his life; ef he'll tell all about it,"
counsels Cully. "What d'ye say, cap?"

"I agree to that," responds the Ranger captain. "He don't appear to be
worth shooting; though it may be as well to take him on to the
settlements, and shut him up in prison. The promise of pardon may get
out of him all he knows; if not, the other will. He's not an Indian,
and a bit of rope looped round his neck will, no doubt, loosen his
tongue. Suppose we try boys?"

The "boys" are unanimous in their assent, and the renegade is at once
brought up for examination. The man in the green blanket coat, who, as
a Santa Fe expeditioner, has spent over twelve months in Mexican
prisons, is appointed examiner. He has been long enough among the
"yellerbellies" to have learnt their language.

The renegade is for a time reticent, and his statements are
contradictory. No wonder he declines to tell what has occurred, so
compromising to himself! But when the _lariat_ is at length noosed
around his neck, the loos