The men seemed to be absent a good while, though that feeling might have been occasioned by my interest and anxiety.  Finally I heard heavy steps.  Wright came in alone.  He was leaden-faced, humiliated.  Then something abject in him gave place to rage.  He strode the room; he cursed.

Sampson returned, now appreciably calmer.  I could not but decide that he felt relief at the evident rejection of Wright’s proposal.  “Don’t fume about it, George,” he said.  “You see I can’t help it.  We’re pretty wild out here, but I can’t rope my daughter and give her to you as I would an unruly steer.”

“Sampson, I can make her marry me,” declared Wright thickly.

“How?”

“You know the hold I got on you—­the deal that made you boss of this rustler gang?”

“It isn’t likely I’d forget,” replied Sampson grimly.

“I can go to Diane—­tell her that—­make her believe I’d tell it broadcast, tell this Ranger Steele, unless she’d marry me!” Wright spoke breathlessly, with haggard face and shadowed eyes.  He had no shame.  He was simply in the grip of passion.  Sampson gazed with dark, controlled fury at his relative.  In that look I saw a strong, unscrupulous man fallen into evil ways, but still a man.  It betrayed Wright to be the wild and passionate weakling.

I seemed to see also how, during all the years of association, this strong man had upheld the weak one.  But that time had gone forever, both in intent on Sampson’s part and in possibility.  Wright, like the great majority of evil and unrestrained men on the border, had reached a point where influence was futile.  Reason had degenerated.  He saw only himself.

“But, George, Diane’s the one person on earth who must never know I’m a rustler, a thief, a red-handed ruler of the worst gang on the border,” replied Sampson impressively.

George bowed his head at that, as if the significance had just occurred to him.  But he was not long at a loss.  “She’s going to find it out sooner or later.  I tell you she knows now there’s something wrong out here.  She’s got eyes.  And that meddling cowboy of hers is smarter than you give him credit for.  They’re always together.  You’ll regret the day Russ ever straddled a horse on this ranch.  Mark what I say.”

“Diane’s changed, I know; but she hasn’t any idea yet that her daddy’s a boss rustler.  Diane’s concerned about what she calls my duty as mayor.  Also I think she’s not satisfied with my explanations in regard to certain property.”

Wright halted in his restless walk and leaned against the stone mantelpiece.  He squared himself as if this was his last stand.  He looked desperate, but on the moment showed an absence of his usual nervous excitement.  “Sampson, that may well be true,” he said.  “No doubt all you say is true.  But it doesn’t help me.  I want the girl.  If I don’t get her I reckon we’ll all go to hell!” He might have meant anything, probably meant the worst.  He certainly had something more in mind.