ll.

Excitement was laying hold of Ascalon even at that early hour. When
Morgan went on the street after breakfast he found many people going
about, gathering in groups along the shady fronts, or hastening singly
in the manner of men bound upon the confirmation of unusual news. The
pale fish of the night were out in considerable numbers, leaking
cigarette smoke through all the apertures of their faces as they
grouped according to their kind to discuss the probabilities of the
day. Seth Craddock was coming back with fire in his red eyes; their
deliverer was on his way.

There was no secret of Seth's coming any longer. Even Peden leered in
triumph when he met Morgan as he sauntered outside his closed door in
the peculiar distinction of his black coat, which the strong sun of that
summer morning was not powerful enough to strip from his broad back.

None of the saloons or resorts made an attempt to open their doors to
business. The proprietors appeared to have, on the other hand, a secret
pleasure in keeping them closed, perhaps counting on the gain that would
be theirs when this brief prohibition should come to its end.

Opposed to this pleasurable expectancy of the proscribed was the
uneasiness and doubt of the respectable. True, this man Morgan had taken
Seth Craddock's gun away from him once, but luck must have had much to
do with his preservation in that perilous adventure. Morgan had rounded
up the Texas men quartered on the town under Craddock's patronage, also,
but they were sluggish from their debauch, and he had approached them
with the caution of a man coming up on the blind side of a horse.
Yesterday that had looked like a big, heroic thing for one man to
accomplish, but in the light of reflection today it must be admitted
that it was mainly luck.

Yes, Morgan had closed up the town last night, defying even Peden in his
own hall, where defiance as a rule meant business for the undertaker.
But the glamour of his morning's success was still over him at that
time; Peden and his bouncers were a little cautious, a little cowed. He
could not close the town up another night; murmurs of defiance were
beginning to rise already.

And so the people who had applauded his drastic enforcement of the law
last night, became of no more support to Morgan today than a furrow of
sand. Luck was a great thing if a man could play it forever, they said,
but it was too much to believe that luck would hold even twice with
Morgan