the book around to
verify the upside-down spelling of his name.

"I expect it will be only for a few days," Morgan replied, smiling a
little at the pert sufficiency of the clerk.

"It's a dollar a day for board and room--in advance in this man's town."

"Why in this man's town, any more than any other man's town?" the guest
inquired, amused.

"What would you think of a man that would run up a three weeks' bill and
then walk out there and let somebody put a bullet through him?" she
returned by way of answer.

"I think it would be a mean way to beat a board bill," he told her,
seriously. "Do they do that right along here?"

"One smarty from Texas done it three or four months ago. Since then it's
cash in advance."

Morgan thought it was a very wise regulation for a town where perils
were said to be so thick, all in keeping with the notoriety of Ascalon.
He made inquiry about something to eat. The girl's face set in
disfavoring cast as she tossed her head haughtily.

"Dinner's over long ago," she said.

Morgan made amends for this unwitting breach of the rules, wondering
what there was in the air of Ascalon that made people combative. Even
this fresh-faced girl, not twenty, he was sure, was resentful, snappish
without cause, inclined to quarrel if a word got crosswise in a man's
mouth. As he turned these things in mind, casting about for some place
to stow his bag, the girl smiled across at him, the mockery going out of
her bright eyes. Perhaps it was because she felt that she had defended
the ancient right of hostelers to rise in dignified front when a
traveler spoke of a meal out of the regular hour, perhaps because there
was a gentleness and sincerity in the tall, honest-looking man before
her that reached her with an appeal lacking in those who commonly came
and went before her counter.

"Put your grip over there," she nodded, "and I'll see what I can find.
If you don't mind a snack--" she hesitated.

"Anything--a slab of cold meat and a cup of coffee."

"I'll call you," she said, starting for the blue door.

The girl had reached the dining-room door when there entered from the
street a man, lurching when he walked as if the earth tipped under him
like the deck of a ship. He was a young and slender man, dressed rather
loudly in black sateen shirt and scarlet necktie, with broad blue,
tassel-ornamented sleeve holders about his arms. He wore neither coat
nor vest, but was belted with a pistol and booted a