blood.
If you could be spared that in the ordeal ahead of you!"

"There's no backing out of it. The challenge has passed," he said.

"No, there's no way. He's coming--he knows you're waiting for him. But I
hope you'll not have to--I hope you'll come out of it _clean_! A curse
of blood falls on every man that takes this office. I wish--I hope, you
can keep clear of that."

CHAPTER XVI

THE MEAT HUNTER COMES

The few courageous and hopeful ones who remained loyal to Morgan were
somewhat assured, the doubtful ones agitated a bit more in their
indecision, when he appeared on horseback a little past the turn of day.
These latter people, whose courage had leaked out overnight, now began
to weigh again their business interests and personal safety in the
balance of their wavering judgment.

Morgan, on horseback, looked like a lucky man; they admitted that. Much
more lucky, indeed, than he had appeared that morning when he went
limping around the square. It was a question whether to come over to his
side again, openly and warmly, or to hold back until he proved himself
to be as lucky as he looked. A man might as well nail up his door and
leave town as fall under the disfavor of Seth Craddock. So, while they
wavered, they were still not quite convinced.

Prominent among the business men who had revised their attitude on
reform as the shadow of Seth Craddock approached Ascalon was Earl Gray,
the druggist, one of the notables on Dora Conboy's waiting list.
Druggist Gray was a man who wore bell-bottomed trousers and a moleskin
vest without a coat. His hair had a fetching crinkle to it, which he
prized above all things in bottles and out, and wore long, like the man
on the label.

There was so much hair about Mr. Gray, counting mustache and all, that
his face and body seemed drained and attenuated by the contribution of
sustenance to keep the adornment flourishing in its brown abundance. For
Gray was a tall, thin, bony-kneed man, with long flat feet like wedges
of cheese. His eyes were hollow and melancholy, as if he bore a sorrow;
his nose was high and bony, and bleak in his sharp, thin-cheeked face.

Gray expressed himself openly to the undertaker, in whom he found a
cautious, but warm supporter of his views. There would be fevers and
ills with Ascalon closed up, Gray said he knew very well, just as there
would be deaths and burials in the natural course of events under the
same conditions. But there would be ne