When Rangoon was tied, the Lone Ranger dragged him across the clearing
and placed him with his back propped against a tree.
"You'll probably be here for some time," he said. "I'll take that gag
out of your mouth if you can keep quiet."
The gag removed, the masked man studied Rangoon's face for fully a
minute. "What's your name?" he asked.
Rangoon glared darkly from beneath the connected eyebrows. His mouth,
already distorted somewhat by the scar on his cheek, was drawn even
further back when he said in a slow voice that fairly dripped with hate,
"You go tuh hell."
Penny spoke. "He calls himself Rangoon."
The Lone Ranger nodded. "It seems to me that I've seen him when he had
another name." He turned to Penelope. "You, of course, are Penelope
Cavendish," he said, more as a statement than a question.
The girl nodded while her eyes remained fixed on the face beneath the
mask, and the mask itself. She hadn't noticed the slight limp when the
Lone Ranger walked; the shoulder bandage was covered by his shirt. Her
feeling was one of admiration and gratitude, but most of all resentment.
She felt that Tonto had misled her. It was inconceivable that the man
before her could so recently have been desperately in need of food. He
didn't look helpless. He certainly hadn't acted helpless when he saw
Rangoon. Yet Tonto had implied that his plight was serious. Perhaps need
of concealment, not starvation, had kept the masked man hidden while
Tonto sought food. Though Penny liked his voice and manner and the way
he'd handled Rangoon, she could judge him only by facts and
circumstances. He had come to the clearing--Rangoon was in the clearing.
Wasn't it obvious that they came there to meet? Rangoon, known as an
outlaw--the newcomer masked. True, the masked man had fired at Rangoon
while Rangoon fired at him, but wasn't this perhaps an act for her
benefit? Neither man was injured. These were the facts.
To Tonto, Penny said, "I didn't know your friend was an outlaw."
Tonto began to speak, but Penny continued. "If I had, I certainly
wouldn't have brought food for you to take to him."
The Lone Ranger spoke quickly, "Are you the one who brought Tonto that
food?"
"Of course. Didn't he tell you?"
"No," said the masked man, glancing at Tonto, "he did not."
Tonto was highly uncomfortable.
"If I had known where that food came from," the Lone Ranger said, "I
might not have--"
"I suppose," interrupted Penny, "the fact that you had food from the
Cavendish family complicates things for you."
The Lone Ranger looked at the girl somewhat surprised. She went on,
speaking slowly and significantly. "It must make it a trifle difficult
for you to go ahead with your plans."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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