It was after daylight when he dismounted stiffly at Blaze’s gate.  He was wet to the skin and bespattered with mud; he had been almost constantly in the saddle for twenty-four hours, and Don Ricardo’s cow-pony was almost exhausted.

Blaze and Paloma, of course, were tremendously interested in his story.

“Say, now, that’s quick work,” the latter exclaimed, heartily.  “You’re some thief-buster, Dave, and if you’ll just stay around here little calves can grow up with some comfort.”

When Dave rode to Jonesville, after breakfast, he found that the body of his victim had been brought in during the night, and that the town was already buzzing with news of the encounter.  During the forenoon Don Ricardo and his sons arrived, bringing additional information, which they promptly imparted to the Ranger.  The Guzmans were people of action.  All three of them had spent the night on horseback, and Pedro had made a discovery.  On the day previous Garza had been seen riding in company with a man astride a sorrel pony, and this man had been recognized as Adolfo Urbina.  Pedro’s witness would swear to it.

Their distance from Las Palmas at the time when they had been seen together proved, beyond question, that unless Urbina had flown he could not have arrived at the place in question by noon, the hour Ed Austin had fixed.

This significant bit of information, however, Dave advised the Guzmans not to make public for the time being.

Toward midday Tad Lewis and three of his men arrived with the news that Urbina had left for Pueblo before they could intercept him.

“He’s got a girl up there, and he’s gone to get married,” Tad explained.  “I’m sure sorry we missed him.”

Dave smiled grimly at the speaker.

“Are you sure he didn’t cross to the other side?” he asked.

Lewis retorted warmly:  “Adolfo’s an all-right hombre, and I’ll back him.  So ‘ll Ed Austin, I guess me an’ Ed are responsible, ain’t we?” Some skeptical expression in his hearer’s face prompted him to inquire, brusquely, “Don’t you believe what I’m telling you about his goin’ to Pueblo?”

“I guess he’s gone—­somewhere.”

Tad uttered an angry exclamation.  “Looks to me like you’d made up your mind to saddle this thing onto him whether he done it or not.  Well, he’s a poor Mexican, but I won’t stand to see him railroaded, and neither will ‘Young Ed.’”

“No?”

“You heard me!  Ed will alibi him complete.”

Law answered, sharply:  “You tell Ed Austin to go slow with his alibis.  And you take this for what it’s worth to you:  I’m going to get all the cattle-rustlers in this county—­all of them, understand?”

Lewis flushed redly and sputtered:  “If you make this stick with Adolfo, nobody ’ll be safe.  I reckon Urbina’s word is as good as old Ricardo’s.  Everybody knows what he is.”

Later when Dave met the Guzmans, Ricardo told him, excitedly, “That horse Tad Lewis is riding is the one I saw yesterday.”