Judge Thayer introduced this man as Dell Hutton, county treasurer. Hutton wrung Morgan's hand with ardent grip, as if he welcomed him into the brotherhood of the elect in Ascalon, speaking out of the corner of his mouth around his cigar. He was a thin-mouthed man of twenty-five, or perhaps a year or two older, with a shrunken weazenness about his face that made him look like a very old man done over, and but poorly renovated. His eyes were pale, with shadows in them as of inquiry and distrust; his stature was short, his frame slight. Hutton seemed to be deeply, even passionately, interested in the venture Morgan had come to make in that country. He offered his services in any exigency where they might be applied, shaking hands again with hard grip, accompanied by a wrinkling of his thin mouth about his cigar as he clamped his jaws in the fervor of his earnestness. But he appeared to be under a great pressure to go his way, his eyes controverting the sincerity of his words the while. "He's rather a young man to be filling such a responsible position," Morgan ventured as they resumed their way. "Dell wasn't elected to the office," Judge Thayer explained. "He's filling out his father's term." "Did he--die?" Morgan inquired, marveling over the mortality among the notables of the town. "He was a victim of this feud in the rivalry for the county seat," Judge Thayer explained, with sadness. "It was due to Hutton, more than any other force, that we didn't lose the county seat at the last election--he kept the cattlemen lined up, was a power among them, followed that business a long time himself. Yes. He was the first man that ever drove a herd of cattle from Texas to load for market when this railroad was put through. Some of those skulkers from Glenmore shot him down at his door two months after he took office." "I thought the boy looked like he'd been trained on the range," Morgan said, thoughtfully. "Yes, Dell was raised in the saddle, drove several trips from Texas up here. Dell"--softly, a little sorrowfully, Morgan thought--"was the other principal in that affair with our late editor." "Oh, I see. He was exonerated?" "Clear case of self-defense, proved that Smith--the editor was Smith--reached for his gun first." Morgan did not comment, but he thought that this seemed a thing easily proved in Ascalon. He parted from the judge at the bank corner, which was across the way from the hotel.