RANGER OUT OF BOUNDS, by Johnston Mcculley About two hours after dawn, Tom Darnack, Texas Ranger, rode up out of a coulee and crossed the boundary line from Texas into New Mexico. By that act, he put himself outside his official jurisdiction and was reduced to the status of a citizen. The dew was heavy on the rocks and sage, and a slight mist was commencing to lift as he touched with his spurs, and his pony started along the narrow, winding trail at an easy lope. The pony was a tough little buckskin he had bought after his former mount had gone lame, and the mount did not bear the Texas state brand.
The guns Darnack wore and the rifle in his saddle-boot were his own, and not of State issue. His gun-belt and holsters were not Ranger regulation. His clothing was the ordinary attire of a range rider. But Darnack remained a Ranger, nevertheless. He was a stern, determined, relentless lawman on the trail of a wanton killer—Luke Stanner, murderer and thief, one of the notorious King Lobo band of Border raiders.
Stanner had made a get-away a couple of months before in a blaze of gunfire and a hail of smoking lead, during a battle in which most of the others of the King Lobo band had been either killed or caught by a posse. In making his getaway, Stanner had killed a Ranger, Ed Richards. Stanner was the sort to slay at sight any man who wore a law badge.
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