The Rustlers of Pecos County | Page 4

follow up that look with the affirmative I expected.
"Lively place, I hear--Linrock is?"
"Ain't so lively as Sanderson, but it's bigger."
"Yes, I heard it was. Fellow down there was talking about two cowboys
who were arrested."
"Sure. I heerd all about thet. Joe Bean an' Brick Higgins--they belong
heah, but they ain't heah much."
I did not want Dick to think me overinquisitive, so I turned the talk into
other channels. It appeared that Miss Sampson had not left any
instructions for me, so I was glad to go with Dick to supper, which we
had in the kitchen.
Dick informed me that the cowboys prepared their own meals down at
the bunks; and as I had been given a room at the ranch-house he
supposed I would get my meals there, too.
After supper I walked all over the grounds, had a look at the horses in
the corrals, and came to the conclusion that it would be strange if Miss
Sampson did not love her new home, and if her cousin did not enjoy
her sojourn there. From a distance I saw the girls approaching with
Wright, and not wishing to meet them I sheered off.
When the sun had set I went down to the town with the intention of

finding Steele.
This task, considering I dared not make inquiries and must approach
him secretly, might turn out to be anything but easy.
While it was still light, I strolled up and down the main street. When
darkness set in I went into a hotel, bought cigars, sat around and
watched, without any clue.
Then I went into the next place. This was of a rough crude exterior, but
the inside was comparatively pretentious, and ablaze with lights.
It was full of men, coming and going--a dusty-booted crowd that
smelled of horses and smoke.
I sat down for a while, with wide eyes and open ears. Then I hunted up
a saloon, where most of the guests had been or were going. I found a
great square room lighted by six huge lamps, a bar at one side, and all
the floor space taken up by tables and chairs.
This must have been the gambling resort mentioned in the Ranger's
letter to Captain Neal and the one rumored to be owned by the mayor
of Linrock. This was the only gambling place of any size in southern
Texas in which I had noted the absence of Mexicans. There was some
card playing going on at this moment.
I stayed in there for a while, and knew that strangers were too common
in Linrock to be conspicuous. But I saw no man whom I could have
taken for Steele.
Then I went out.
It had often been a boast of mine that I could not spend an hour in a
strange town, or walk a block along a dark street, without having
something happen out of the ordinary.
Mine was an experiencing nature. Some people called this luck. But it
was my private opinion that things gravitated my way because I looked

and listened for them.
However, upon the occasion of my first day and evening in Linrock it
appeared, despite my vigilance and inquisitiveness, that here was to be
an exception.
This thought came to me just before I reached the last lighted place in
the block, a little dingy restaurant, out of which at the moment, a tall,
dark form passed. It disappeared in the gloom. I saw a man sitting on
the low steps, and another standing in the door.
"That was the fellow the whole town's talkin' about--the Ranger," said
one man.
Like a shot I halted in the shadow, where I had not been seen.
"Sho! Ain't boardin' heah, is he?" said the other.
"Yes."
"Reckon he'll hurt your business, Jim."
The fellow called Jim emitted a mirthless laugh. "Wal, he's been all my
business these days. An' he's offered to rent that old 'dobe of mine just
out of town. You know, where I lived before movin' in heah. He's goin'
to look at it to-morrow."
"Lord! does he expect to stay?"
"Say so. An' if he ain't a stayer I never seen none. Nice, quiet, easy
chap, but he just looks deep."
"Aw, Jim, he can't hang out heah. He's after some feller, that's all."
"I don't know his game. But he says he was heah for a while. An' he
impressed me some. Just now he says: 'Where does Sampson live?' I
asked him if he was goin' to make a call on our mayor, an' he says yes.
Then I told him how to go out to the ranch. He went out, headed that
way."

"The hell he did!"
I gathered from this fellow's exclamation that he was divided between