“That’s your road back yonder.  It’s a right good road, and I’d advise you to travel it, fast.”

But this suggestion was also ignored; in fact, it appeared to amuse the man addressed, for he, too, laughed.  He turned, and the women noticed that he carried a short saddle-gun.  They saw, also, that at least one of the men at his back was similarly armed.

“Now, what’s the hurry?” The stranger was chuckling.  Suddenly he raised his voice and called, loudly:  “Hello, Dave!  Is that you-all?”

The answer floated promptly back:  “Hello, Cap!  Sure it’s us.”

“Have you got him?”

It was Blaze Jones’s voice which answered this time:  “You bet!”

Paloma Jones was trembling now.  She clung to Alaire, crying, thankfully:  “It’s the Rangers!  The Rangers!” Then she broke away and ran out into the moonlight, trailing her absurd firearm after her.

“Now, boys,” the Ranger captain was saying, “I know ’most every one of you, and we ain’t going to have the least bit of trouble over this thing, are we?  I reckon you-all are friends of Ricardo Guzman, and you just couldn’t wait to find out about him, eh?”

Alaire, who had followed Paloma, was close enough now to recognize the two Guzman boys as members of the Ranger party.  Lewis and his men had drawn together at the first alarm; Longorio’s Mexicans had gathered about their leader.  The entire situation had changed in a moment, and the Ranger captain was in control of it.

Soon Dave Law and Blaze Jones came up over the river-bank; they paused, stricken with surprise at finding a score of people where they had expected no more than four.

Blaze was the first to speak.  “What the hell?” he cried.  He peered near-sightedly from one to the other; then his huge bulk shook with laughter:  “Say, do my glasses magnify, or is this an Odd-Fellows meetin’?”

“Dad!  Oh, Dad!” Paloma scurried to him and flung herself into his arms.

“Lord of mercy, kid!” the father exclaimed.  “Why, you’d ought to be home and abed, long ago.  You’ll catch your death of cold.  Is that gun loaded.”

Dave Law was even more amazed than his companion.  His first glimpse of the waiting figures had warned him that something had gone wrong, and, therefore, he did not stop to ask himself how Tad Lewis and Longorio could have learned of this affair, or what could have brought Alaire and Ed Austin to the scene.  Recovering from his first surprise, he took a position beside his superior officer.

Captain Evans did not seem at all troubled by the disparity in numbers.  One Ranger, or two at the most, had always been sufficient to quell a Texan disturbance; now that there were three of them, he felt equal to an invasion of Mexican soil, if necessary.  In consequence he relaxed his watchful vigilance, and to Dave he drawled: 

“We’ve got most of the leading citizens of the county, and I reckon somebody in the outfit will be able to identify Guzman.”