The ranger's black eyes were wide with wonder at this intrusion, and angrily flashed. He connected it at once with the attack on the stable. The hair on his low forehead rose bristlingly as he frowned. Yet he realized with a quaking heart that he was helpless. He, although the crack shot of the county, would not have fired while the Colonel was within two yards of his mark for the State of Tennessee. He stood his ground with stolid courage--a target. Then, with a start of surprise, he perceived that the intruder was unarmed. Twenty feet away his rifle stood against the wall. Tobe Gryce was strangely shaken. He experienced a sudden revolt of credulity. This was surely a dream. "Ain't that thar Luke Todd? Why air ye a-waitin' thar?" he called out in a husky undertone. Todd glanced up, and took his pipe from his mouth; it was now fairly alight. "Kase it be Chrismus Eve, Tobe," he said, gravely. The ranger stared for a moment; then came forward and gave the fodder to the mare, pausing now and then and looking with oblique distrust down upon Luke Todd as he smoked his pipe. "I want ter tell ye, Tobe, ez some o' the mounting boys air a-sarchin fur ye outside." "Who air they?" asked the ranger, calmly. His tone was so natural, his manner so unsuspecting, that a new doubt began to stir in Luke Todd's mind. "What ails ye ter keep the mare down hyar, Tobe?" he asked, suddenly. "'Pears like ter me ez that be powerful comical." "Kase," said Tobe, reasonably, "some durned horse-thieves kem arter her one night. I fired at 'em. I hain't hearn on 'em sence. An' so I jes hid the mare." Todd was puzzled. He shifted his pipe in his mouth. Finally he said: "Some folks 'lowed ez ye hed no right ter take up that mare, bein' ez ye war the ranger." Tobe Gryce whirled round abruptly. "What war I a-goin' ter do, then? Feed the critter fur nuthin till the triflin' scamp ez owned her kem arter her? I couldn't work her 'thout takin' her up an' hevin her appraised. Thar's a law agin sech. An' I couldn't git somebody ter toll her off an' take her up. That ain't fair. What ought I ter hev done?" "Wa'al," said Luke, drifting into argument, "the town-folks 'low ez ye hev got nuthin ter prove it by, the stray-book an' records bein' burnt. The town-folks 'low ez ye can't prove by writin' an' sech ez ye ever tried ter find the owner." "The town-folks air fairly sodden in foolishness," exclaimed the ranger, indignantly. He drew from his ample pocket a roll of ragged newspapers, and pointed with his great thumb at a paragraph. And Luke Todd read by the light of the lantern the advertisement and description of the estray printed according to law in the nearest newspaper. The newspaper was so infrequent a factor in the lives of the mountain gossips that this refutation of their theory had never occurred to them.