Running out of Dog

And when hope comes late to a man, it's a dangerous thing. Hope is for the young, the children. Hope in a full-grown man-- particularly one with as little acquaintanceship with it or prospect for it as Blue-- well, that kind of hope burns as it dies, boils blood white, and leaves something mean behind when it's done.
Blue killed Jewel Lut. And Elgin Bern killed Blue.

Blue had to go. But he'd had no weapon in his hand when Elgin, standing just nine feet away, pulled that trigger. Twice. Once we might have been able to overlook, but twice, that's something else again.
"I shot a defenseless man. That's the long and the short of it, and that's a sin."
And he was right:
In the world, 'case you haven't noticed, you usually pay for your sins.
And in the South, always.