Morgan was so suddenly confused by this frank, impetuous appreciation of his efforts, for there was no mistaking the application, that he could not find a word. Rhetta did not give him much time, to be sure, but ran on with her denunciation of the citizenry of the town. "I wouldn't turn a hand for them again, Mr. Morgan--I'd throw up the whole thing and let them cringe like dogs before that murderer when he comes back! It's good enough for them, it's all they deserve." "You can't expect them to be very warm toward a stranger," he said, excusing them according to what he knew to be their due. "They're afraid you can't do it, they're telling one another your luck will fail this time. Luck! that's all the sense there is in _that_ bunch of cowards." "They may be right," he said, thoughtfully. "You know they're not right!" she flashed back, defending him against himself as though he were another. "I don't expect any generosity from them," he said, gentle in his tone and undisturbed. "They're afraid if my luck should happen to turn against me they'd have to pay for any friendship shown me here this morning. Business is business, even in Ascalon." "Luck!" she scoffed. "It's funny you're the only lucky man that's struck this town in a long time, then. If it's all luck, why don't some of them try their hands at rounding up the crooks and killers of this town and showing them the road the way you did that gang yesterday? Yes, I know all about that kind of luck." Morgan walked with her toward Judge Thayer's office, whither she was bound with the mail. Behind them the loafers snickered and passed quips of doubtful humor and undoubted obscenity, but careful to present the face of decorum until Morgan was well beyond their voices. No matter what doubt they had of his luck holding with Seth Craddock, they were not of a mind to make a trial of it on themselves. "I think the best thing to do with this town is just let it go till it dries up and blows away," she said, with the vindictive impatience of youth. "What little good there is in it isn't worth the trouble of cleaning up to save." "Your father's got everything centered here, he told me. There must be a good many honest people in the same boat." "Maybe we could sell out for something, enough to take us away from here. Of course we expected Ascalon to turn out a different town when we came here, the railroad promised to do so much. But there's nothing to make a town when the cattle are gone. We might as well let it begin to die right now." "You're gloomy this morning, Miss Thayer. You remember the Mennonites that wanted to settle here and were afraid?" "There's no use for you to throw your life away making the country safe for them." "Of course not. I hadn't thought of them." "Nor any of these cold-nosed cowards that turn their backs on you for fear your luck's going to change. Luck! the fools!" "They don't figure in the case at all, Miss Thayer."