" Morgan said, shaking his head in all
seriousness. "Is the editor out of it for good? Is he dead?"

"They have a devilish peculiarity of seldom wounding a man here in
Ascalon, Mr. Morgan. I've wished more than once they were not so cursed
proficient. The poor fellow fell dead, sir, at the first shot, while he
was reaching for his gun."

"I've seen something of their proficiency here," Morgan said, with plain
contempt.

Judge Thayer looked at him sharply. "You refer to that affair at the
hotel this afternoon?"

"It was a brutal and uncalled-for sacrifice of human life! it was murder
in the name of the law."

"I think you are somewhat hasty and unjust in your criticism, Mr.
Morgan," the judge mildly protested. "I know the marshal to be a
cool-headed man, a man who can see perils that you and I might overlook
until too late for our own preservation. The fellow must have made some
break for his gun that you didn't see."

"I hope it was that way," Morgan said, willing to give the marshal every
shadow of justification possible.

"I've known Seth Craddock a long time; he was huntin' buffalo for the
railroad contractors when I first came to this country. Why, I appointed
Seth to the office not more than an hour before that mix-up at the
hotel."

"He's beginning early," Morgan said.

"The man that's going to clean this town up must begin early and work
late," Judge Thayer declared. "An officer that would allow a man to run
a bluff on him wouldn't last two hours."

"I suppose not," Morgan admitted.

"As I told Seth when I swore him in, what we want in Ascalon is a
marshal that will use his gun oftener, and to better purpose, than the
men that have gone before him. This town must be purified, the offal of
humanity that makes a stench until it offends the heavens and spreads
our obscene notoriety to the ends of the earth, must be swept out before
we can induce sober and substantial men to bring their families into
this country."

"It looks reasonable enough," Morgan agreed.

"Hell's kettle is on the fire in this town, Mr. Morgan; the devil's own
stew is bubbling in it. If I could induce you to defer your farming
experiment a few months, as much as I approve it, anxious as I am to see
you demonstrate your theories and mine, I believe we could accomplish
the regeneration of this town. With a man of Craddock's caliber on the
street, and you in the _Headlight_ office speaking with the voice of a
thousand men, we coul