Besides, I can't swear it was Snell who hit me." Sampson said something in an undertone to Judge Owens, and that worthy nodded his great, bushy head.
"Bud, you're discharged," said Sampson bluntly.

"Now, the rest of you clear out of here." He absolutely ignored the Ranger.

That was his rebuff to Steele's advances, his slap in the face to an interfering Ranger Service.
If Sampson was crooked he certainly had magnificent nerve.

I almost decided he was above suspicion.

But his nonchalance, his air of finality, his authoritative assurance--these to my keen and practiced eyes were in significant contrast to a certain tenseness of line about his mouth and a slow paling of his olive skin.
He had crossed the path of Vaughn Steele; he had blocked the way of this Texas Ranger.