Jimmy Hayes became a favourite in the camp. He had an endless store of good-nature, and a mild, quality of humour that is well adapted to camp life. He was never without his horned frog. In the of his shirt during rides, on his knee or shoulder in camp, under his blankets at night, the ugly little beast never left him.  
Jimmy was a humourist of a type that prevails in the rural South and West. Unskilled in originating methods of amusing or in conceptions, he had hit upon a comical idea and clung to it . It had seemed to Jimmy a very funny thing to have about his person, with which to amuse his friends, a tame horned frog with a red ribbon around its neck. As it was a happy idea, why not it?
 
The sentiments existing between Jimmy and the frog cannot be exactly . The of the horned frog for affection is a subject upon which we have had no symposiums. It is easier to guess Jimmy's feelings. Muriel was his chef d'œuvre of wit, and as such he cherished her. He caught flies for her, and shielded her from sudden northers. Yet his care was half selfish, and when the time came she repaid him a thousand fold. Other Muriels have thus overbalanced the light attentions of other Jimmies.
 
Not at once did Jimmy Hayes full with his comrades. They loved him for his and , but there hung above him a great sword of suspended . To make merry in camp is not all of a ranger's life. There are horse-thieves to trail, desperate criminals to run down, bravos to battle with, bandits to out of the chaparral, peace and order to be compelled at the of a six-shooter. Jimmy had been "'most generally a cow-puncher," he said; he was inexperienced in ranger methods of . Therefore the speculated apart and solemnly as to how he would stand fire. For, let it be known, the honour and pride of each ranger company is the individual bravery of its members.
 
For two months the border was quiet. The rangers lolled, listless, in camp. And then—bringing joy to the of the frontier—Sebastiano Saldar, an Mexican desperado and cattle-thief, crossed the Rio Grande with his gang and began to lay waste the Texas side. There were indications that Ji............