not a brave man, he lacks the bearing and the full look of the eye
of a courageous man, but he carries two guns now, Morgan, and he can
sling out and shoot a man with incredible speed. And we've got him
quartered on us for nearly two years unless somebody from Glendora comes
over and nails him. We can't fire him, we don't dare to approach him to
suggest his abdication. Morgan, we're in a three-cornered hell of a
fix!"

"Can't the fellow be prosecuted for some of these murders? Isn't there
some way the law can reach him?"

"The coroner's jury absolves him regularly," the judge replied wearily.
"At first they did it because it was the routine, and now they do it to
save their hides. No, there's just one quick and sure way of heading
that devil off in his red trail that I can see, Morgan, and that's for
me to act while he's away. He's gone on some high-flyin' expedition to
Abilene, leaving the town without a peace officer at the mercy of
bandits and thieves. I have the authority to swear in a deputy marshal,
or a hundred of them."

Morgan looked up again quickly from his speculative study of the boards
in Judge Thayer's floor, to meet the elder man's shrewd eyes with a look
of complete understanding. So they sat a moment, each reading the other
as easily as one counts pebbles at the bottom of a clear spring.

"I don't believe I'm the man you're looking for," Morgan said.

"You're the only man that can do it, Morgan. It looks to me like you're
appointed by Providence to step in here and save this town from this
reign of murder."

"Oh!" said Morgan, impatiently, discounting the judge's fervid words.

"You can supplant him, you can strip him of his badge of office when he
steps from the train, and you're the one man that _can_ do it!"

Morgan shook his head, whether in denial of his attributed valor and
prowess, or in declination to assume the proffered honor, Judge Thayer
could not tell.

"I believe you'd do it without ever throwing a gun down on him," Judge
Thayer declared.

"I know he could!" said a clear, hearty, confident voice from the door.

"Come in and help me convince him, Rhetta," Judge Thayer said, his
gray-flecked beard twinkling with the pleasure that beamed from his
eyes. "Mr. Morgan, my daughter. You have met before."

Morgan rose in considerable confusion, feeling more like an abashed and
clumsy cowboy than he ever had felt before in his life. He stood with
his battered hat held flat against his