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.
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