.

"Tell him--tell him--Craddock's come!" Rhetta said.

"Craddock?" said Stilwell, pronouncing the name with inflection of
surprise. "Oh, I thought something awful had happened to somebody." He
turned with the ease of indifference in his manner, to go back and
finish his meal. "Well, didn't you look for him to come back? I knew all
the time he'd come."

Morgan lifted his head. The sun, broken by Rhetta's shadow, brightened
on the floor at his feet, and spread its beam upon his breast like a
golden stole. The old wound on his check bone was a scar now, irregular,
broad from the crude surgery that had bound it but illy. Its dark
disfigurement increased the somber gravity of his face, sunburned and
wind-hardened as any ranger's who rode that prairie waste. From where he
stood Morgan could not see the girl's face, only her restless hand on
the bridle rein, the brown of her riding skirt, the beginning of white
at her waist.

"There ought to be men enough in Ascalon to take care of Craddock,"
Violet said.

"He's not alone, some of those Texas cowboys are with him," Rhetta
explained, her voice firmer, her words quicker. "Mr. Morgan is still
marshal--he gave me his badge, but please tell him I didn't--I forgot to
turn it in with his resignation."

"I don't see that it's Cal's fight this time, Rhetty," Stilwell said.
"He's done enough for them yellow pups over in Ascalon, to be yelped at
and cussed for savin' their dirty hides."

"They're looking for him, they think he's hiding!"

"Well, let 'em look. If they come over here they'll find him--Cal ain't
makin' no secret of where he's at. And they'll find somebody standin'
back to back with him, any time they want to come." Stilwell's
resentment of Ascalon's ingratitude toward his friend was plainer in his
mouth than print.

"They're going to burn the town to drive him out!" Rhetta said, gasping
in the terror that shook her heart.

"I guess it'll be big enough to hold all the people that's in it when
they're through," said Stilwell, unfeelingly.

"Here's his badge," said Rhetta, offering it frantically. "Tell him he's
still marshal!"

"Yes, you can come for him--now!" said Violet, accusingly. "I told
you--you remember now what I told you!"

"O Violet, Violet! If you knew what I've paid for that--if you knew!"

"Not as much as you owe him, if it was the last drop of blood in your
heart!" said Violet. And she turned away, and went and stood by the
door.

"They'll