During the next few days he paid brief visits to several villages that lay in his path.

And in each some one particular friend had a piece of news to impart that made Duane profoundly thoughtful.

A ranger had made a quiet, unobtrusive call upon these friends and left this message, "Tell Buck Duane to ride into Captain MacNelly's camp some time after night." Duane concluded, and his friends all agreed with him, that the new ranger's main purpose in the Nueces country was to capture or kill Buck Duane, and that this message was simply an original and striking ruse, the daring of which might appeal to certain outlaws.
But it did not appeal to Duane.

His curiosity was aroused; it did not, however, tempt him to any foolhardy act.

He turned southwest and rode a hundred miles until he again reached the sparsely settled country.