Part 36 (1/2)

Mr. Hickok, deserted, limped slowly towards the door. As he pa.s.sed the bar, its once supercilious custodian, raised his head above its moist levels, and asked in meekness:

”Mr. Hickok, will you have a drink? It's on the house.”

It was the next afternoon; the Cheyenne marshal, accompanied by Mr.

Bowlby, proprietor of the Gold Room, paid a courtly visit to Mr. Hickok.

The marshal was aggrieved.

”You ought not to come ambuscadin' into camp that a-way,” he remonstrated, speaking of Mr. Hickok's bashful entrance into town. ”It might have got a pa.s.sel of Cheyenne people killed. It wan't right, Mr.

Hickok. Only it's you, I'd say it sort o' bordered on the treacherous.”

”It ain't that I'm askin' it back, Mr. Hickok,” observed Mr. Bowlby, diffidently, ”but I want to check up my game. Sech bein' my motive, would you-all mind informin' me kindly how big a wad you got outen that drawer?”

”Which I sh.o.r.e couldn't say,” returned Mr. Hickok, languidly. ”I ain't counted it none as yet.” Then, in a way of friendly generosity: ”Mr.

Bowlby, I don't reckon how I oughter keep all that money; it's too much.

I'd feel easier if you'd let me split it with you.”

”No 'bjections in the least,” replied Mr. Bowlby, politely.

”Which I should say as much!” exclaimed the marshal, in enthusiastic admiration of Mr. Hickok's liberality. ”Thar's an offer that's good enough for a dog! An' now, gents,” concluded the marshal, linking one arm into that of Mr. Hickok, and with Mr. Bowlby on the other; ”let's go down to the Gold Room an' licker.”

CHAPTER XVI

THE LAST VISIT TO DODGE

There was a County Seat war between the towns of Cimarron and Ingalls, and it was in the final phases of that involvement the historian first hears of Mr. Masterson's brother Jim. Those differences between Cimarron and Ingalls carried interesting features. Not a least of these was the death of Mr. Prather at Mr. Tighlman's positive hands. The latter exact personage was a citizen of Dodge. Being, however, one who resented narrowisms and to whom any ”pent up Utica” was as the thing unbearable, Mr. Tighlman permitted himself an interest in that Gray County contention and, since Cimarron was the natural-born enemy of Dodge, sympathized with Ingalls.

This sentiment on Mr. Tighlman's part did not meet with the approbation of Mr. Prather, who was a partisan of Cimarron, and when the former appeared at the special election called to settle the question, Mr.

Prather-to employ a childish phrase-fell into a profound pout. Mr.

Tighlman's attendance meant nothing beyond a desire to humour his curiosity and flatter that interest which possessed him in favour of an Ingalls success. Mr. Prather, however, in his jealousy for Cimarron, construed it differently and pulled his gun.

Being alert and sensitive, and having had his nerves sharpened by perilous experiences, Mr. Tighlman was instantly aware of this hostile demonstration. As corollary, his own gun left its scabbard coincident with that of Mr. Prather, the result being a weakening of the Cimarron cause by the loss of one. There was no criticism of Mr. Tighlman; for the best belief of folk ascribed a first wrong step to the vanished Mr.

Prather. The common feeling was summed up by an onlooker who spoke without prejudice. He said:

”Prather reached for his six-shooter, an' Billy”-meaning Mr.

Tighlman-”beat him to it. That's all thar was to the fuss.”

The county records were in Cimarron, which had been _de facto_ the County Seat. Ingalls came forth of the election victor, and many held that the taking off of Mr. Prather in its moral effect had much to do with bringing the triumph about. It may have been this thought that suggested to Ingalls the enlistment of Mr. Tighlman's services when, following the election and in defiance of that ballot decision then and there obtained, Cimarron scoffed at every mention of surrendering the records. Those marks of county authority were the property of Ingalls.

What cared Cimarron for that? Cimarron snapped thumb and finger beneath the Ingalls nose! It scorned the election and contemned the result! If Ingalls wanted those records, Cimarron, furbis.h.i.+ng up its firearms, would admire to see it get them.

Florence in the fourteenth century retained the military genius of Sir John Hawkwood to its standards and set him to lead its armies in the field. Sir John, as rental for his valour, was given a princely salary while he lived and a marble tomb when he died, which latter monument is still extant, a Florentine exhibit when tourists turn that way.

Impressed by the Italian example, Ingalls upon being met by the belligerent obstinacy of Cimarron retained Mr. Tighlman. Would he get those records? Mr. Tighlman would.

Mr. Tighlman possessed a capacity for strategy. He went after the records on Sunday. He argued that, Sunday being a day of rest, the male inhabitants of Cimarron would one and all be in the saloons. Mr.

Tighlman deduced rightly on that point, and his rapine of the records was only discovered by chance. A Cimarronian, journeying from one barroom to another, observed him as he threw the last volume into the waggon and sounded an alarm.

Within two minutes thereafter, Mr. Tighlman was shot at five hundred times. And yet he got away and took the records with him. His only injury was received when, a shot having killed a dog at his very feet, he fell over the dog and broke his leg. For all that, he dragged himself aboard the waggon and escaped.

Mr. Tighlman covered his retreat with a shotgun. As a bloodless method of engaging the local faculties, he opened right and left with buckshot on the large front windows that fenced the street. There was a prodigious breaking of gla.s.s, and the clatter thereof carried Cimarron almost to a stampede. As showing the blind hurry of the inhabitants, Mr.

Tighlman said that he saw one gentleman miss his footing and fall, and before he could even think of getting up eight of his fellow townsmen fell on top of him. It was through such stirring scenes that Mr.