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soon for me," I replied. "Shall I chuck my job? Come out from behind these cowboy togs?"
    "Not yet. We need proof, Russ. We've got to be able to prove things. Hang on at the ranch yet awhile."
    "This Bo Snecker was scared stiff till he recognized Wright. Isn't that proof?"
    "No, that's nothing. We've got to catch Sampson and Wright red-handed."
    "I don't like the idea of you trailing along alone," I protested. "Remember what Neal told me. I'm to kick. It's time for me to hang round with a couple of guns. You'll never use one."
    "The hell I won't," he retorted, with a dark glance of passion. I was surprised that my remark had angered him. "You fellows are all wrong. I knowwhen to throw a gun. You ought to remember that Rangers have a bad name for wanting to shoot. And I'm afraid it's deserved."
    "Did you shoot at Snecker?" I queried.
    "I could have got him in the back. But that wouldn't do. I shot three times at his legs-tried to let him down. I'd have made him tell everything he knew, but he ran. He was too fast for me."
    "Shooting at his legs! No wonder he ran. He savvied your game all right. It's funny, Vaughn, how these rustlers and gunmen don't mind being killed. But to cripple them, rope them, jail them-that's hell to them! Well, I'm to go on, up at the ranch, falling further in love with that sweet kid instead of coming out straight to face things with you?"
    Steele had to laugh, yet he was more thoughtful of my insistence.
    "Russ, you think you have patience, but you don't know what patience is. I won't be hurried on this job. But I'll tell you what: I'll hang under cover most of the time when you're not close to me. See? That can be managed. I'll watch for you when you come in town. We'll go in the same places. And in case I get busy you can stand by and trail along after me. That satisfy you?"
    "Fine!" I said, both delighted and relieved. "Well, I'll have to rustle back now to tell Miss Sampson you're all right."
    Steele had about finished pulling on a clean shirt, exercising care not to disarrange the bandages; and he stopped short to turn squarely and look at me with hungry eyes.
    "Russ, did she-show sympathy?"
    "She was all broken up about it. Thought you were going to die."
    "Did she send you?"
    "Sure. And she said hurry," I replied.
    I was not a little gleeful over the apparent possibility of Steele being in the same boat with me.
    "Do you think she would have cared if-if I had been shot up bad?"
    The great giant of a Ranger asked this like a boy, hesitatingly, with color in his face.
    "Care! Vaughn, you're as thickheaded as you say I'm locoed. Diane Sampson has fallen in love with you! That's all. Love at first sight! She doesn't realize it. But I know."
    There he stood as if another bullet had struck him, this time straight through the heart. Perhaps one had-and I repented a little of my overconfident declaration.
    Still, I would not go back on it. I believed it.
    "Russ, for God's sake! What a terrible thing to say!" he ejaculated hoarsely.
    "No. It's not terrible tosay it-only the fact is terrible," I went on. I may be wrong. But I swear I'm right. When you opened your coat, showed that bloody breast-well, I'll never forget her eyes.
    "She had been furious. She showed passion-hate. Then all in a second something wonderful, beautiful broke through. Pity, fear, agonized thought of your death! If that's not love, if-if she did not betray love, then I never saw it. She thinks she hates you. But she loves you."
    "Get out of here," he ordered thickly.
    I went, not forgetting to peep out at the door and to listen a moment, then I hurried into the open, up toward the ranch.
    The stars were very big and bright, so calm, so cold, that it somehow hurt me to look at them. Not like men's lives, surely!
    What had fate done to Vaughn Steele and to me? I had a moment of bitterness, an emotion rare with me.
    Most Rangers put love behind them when they entered the Service and seldom found it after that. But love had certainly