And it was then I was hard put to it to keep track of the queries, exclamations, and other wild talk of two very much excited young ladies.

I wanted to think; I _needed_ to think.
"Wasn't he lovely?
Oh, I could adore him!" rapturously uttered Miss Sally Langdon several times, to my ultimate disgust.
Also, after Blome had ridden out of sight, Miss Sampson lost the evident effect of his sinister presence, and she joined Miss Langdon in paying the rustler compliments, too.

Perhaps my irritation was an indication of the quick and subtle shifting of my mind to harsher thought.
"Jack Blome!" I broke in upon their adulations.

"Rustler and gunman.

Did you see the notches on his gun?
Every notch for a man he's killed! For weeks reports have come to Linrock that soon as he could get round to it he'd ride down and rid the community of that bothersome fellow, that Texas Ranger! He's come to kill Vaughn Steele!".