it was a subject of common regret when mr. masterson, as sheriff of ford, decided to resign. he had shown himself equipped for the position, being by nature cool and just and honest, and disposed to accuracy in all things, especially in his shooting. it was those laws prohibitive of the sale of strong drink throughout the state of kansas that prompted the resignation of mr. masterson.
“the rounding up of horse thieves and hold-ups, bob,” observed mr. masterson to mr. wright, “is legitimate work. and i don’t mind burning a little powder with them if such should be their notion. but i draw the line at pulling on a gentleman, and dictating water as a beverage.”
whereupon mr. masterson laid down his office, and mr. wright and mr. short and mr. kelly and mr. trask and mr. tighlman and cimarron bill sorrowfully gathered at the wright house and gave a dinner in his honor. following the dinner, mr. masterson translated himself to arizona, while dodge relieved its feelings with the circulation of a document which read:
“we, the undersigned, agree to pay the sums set opposite our
names to the widow and orphans of the gent who first informs on
a saloonkeeper.”
the white american is a mammal of unusual sort. he doesn’t mind when his officers of government merely rob him, or do no more than just saddle and ride him in favour of some pillaging monopoly. but the moment those officers undertake to tell him what he shall drink and when he shall drink it, he goes on the warpath. thus was it with the ebullient folk of dodge on the dry occasion of prohibition. the paper adverted to gained many signatures, and promised a fortune to those mourning ones it so feelingly described.
when mr. masterson laid down his regalia as sheriff and the public realised that he had pulled his six-shooters, officially, for the last time, a sense of loss filled the bosoms of those who liked a peaceful life. there was another brood which felt the better pleased. certain dissolute ones, who arrive at ruddiest blossom in a half-baked western camp, made no secret of their satisfaction. withal, they despised mr. masterson for the certainty of his pistol practise, and that tacit brevity wherewith he set his guns to work.
perhaps of those who rejoiced over the going of mr. masterson, a leading name was that of bear creek johnson. certainly, bear creek jubilated with a greater degree of noise than did the others. having money at the time, bear creek came forth upon what he meant should be a record spree.
the joyful bear creek was fated to meet with check. he had attained to the first stages of that picnic which he planned, “jest beginnin’ to onbuckle,” as he himself expressed it, when he was addressed upon the subject by mr. wright. the latter was standing in the doorway of his store, and halted bear creek, whooping up the street. mr. wright owned a past wherein rifle smoke and courage were equally commingled to make an honoured whole. aware of these credits to the fame of mr. wright, bear creek ceased whooping to hear what he might say. as bear creek paused, mr. wright from the doorway bent upon him a somber glance.
“i only wanted to say, bear creek,” observed mr. wright, “that if i were you i wouldn’t tire the town with any ill-timed gayety. if the old vigilance committee should come together, and if it should decide to clean up the camp, the fact that you owe me money wouldn’t save you. i should never let private interests interfere with my duty to the town, nor a lust for gain keep me from voting to hang a criminal. it would be no help to him that i happened to be his creditor.”
this rather long oration threw cold water upon the high spirits of bear creek johnson. he whooped no more, and at the close of mr. wright’s remarks returned to his accustomed table in the alamo, where he devoted the balance of the evening to a sullen consumption of rum.
several months elapsed, and dodge had felt no ill effects from prohibition. whiskey was obtainable at usual prices in the alamo, the alhambra, the long branch, the dance hall, and what other haunts made a feature of liquid inspiration. dodge was satisfied. dodge was practical and never complained of any law until it was enforced. since such had not been the case with those statutes of prohibition, dodge was content. the herds as aforetime came up from texas in the fall; as aforetime the cowboys mirthfully divided their equal money between whiskey, monte and quadrilles. the folk of dodge thereat were pleased. no one, official, had come to molest them or make them afraid, and a first resentful interest in prohibition was dying down.
this condition of calm persisted undisturbed until one afternoon when the telegraph operator came over to the alhambra, pale and shaken, bearing a yellow message. the message told how the attorney general, and the president of the prohibition league were to be in dodge next day, with a fell purpose of making desolate that jocund hamlet by an enforcement of the laws. the visitors would dismantle dodge of its impudent defiance; they would destroy it with affidavits, plow and sow its site with salt in the guise of warrants of arrest. when they were finished, the alhambra, the long branch, the alamo, the dance hall and kindred kindly emporiums would be as springs that had run dry, while, captives in the town’s calaboose, their proprietors wore irons and languished. to add insult to injury, those exalted ones promised that when they had cleansed dodge and placed it upon a rumless footing, they would address what citizens were not in jail and strive to show them the error of their sodden ways and teach them to lead a happier and a soberer life.
when mr. masterson withdrew to arizona, he did not expect to soon return to dodge. he found, however, that despite tombstone and its pleasures he dragged a sense of loneliness about, and oft caught himself wondering what mr. wright and mr. kelly and mr. short and the rest of the boys were doing. at last, giving as excuse, that he ought to put a wire fence about a sand-blown stretch of desert that was his and which lay blistering on the south side of the arkansas in the near vicinity of dodge, he resolved upon a visit. he would remain a fortnight. it would be a vacation—he hadn’t had one since the black kettle campaign—and doubtless serve to wear away the edge of those regrets which preyed upon him when now he no longer conserved the peace of dodge with a colt’s-45. there comes a joy with office holding, even when the office is one attractive of invidious lead, and in the newness of laying down that post of sheriff, mr. masterson should not be criticised because the ghost of an ache shot now and then across his soul.
the first day of mr. masterson’s return was devoted to a renewal of old ties—a bit parched, with ten months of arizona. the second day, mr. masterson invested in wandering up and down and indulging himself in a tender survey of old landmarks. here was the sign-post against which he steadied himself when he winged that obstreperous youth from the c-bar-k, who had fired his six-shooter into the alhambra in disapproval of mr. kelly’s wares. it was a good shot; for the one resentful of alhambra whiskey was fully one hundred yards away and on the run. later, the c-bar-k boy admitted that the alhambra whiskey was not so bad, and his slam-bang denunciation of it uncalled for. at that, mr. masterson, first paying a doctor to dig his lead from the boy’s shoulder, gave him his freedom again.
“if kell’s whiskey had been really bad,” said mr. masterson, “i would have been the last to interfere with the resentment of a gentleman who had suffered from it. but i was familiar with the brand, and knew, therefore, how that cowboy unlimbered in merest wantonness. under such conditions, i could not, and do my duty, permit him to go unrebuked.”
half a block further, and mr. masterson stood in front of the first national bank. mr. masterson recalled this arena of finance as the place wherein he borrowed the shotgun with which he cooled the ardour of mr. bowman when that warrior made the long journey from trinidad with the gallant purpose, announced widely in advance, of shooting up the town. looking into the double muzzle of the 10-gauge, the doughty one from trinidad saw that which changed his plans. turning his hardware over to mr. masterson, he took a drink in amity with that hard-working officer, and then embarked upon a festival, conducted with a scrupulous regard for the general peace, which lasted four full days.
across from the bank was the warehouse, the wooden walls of which displayed the furrows ploughed by mr. masterson’s bullets on the day when he fought the three gentleman from missouri. they were weather-stained, those furrows, with the rains that had intervened. mr. masterson being a sentimentalist sighed over his trademarks, and thought of those pleasant times when they were fresh. fifty yards beyond stood the little hotel where the dead were carried. it was a good hotel, and in that hour celebrated for its bar; remembering which, mr. masterson repaired thither in the name of thirst.
mr. masterson was leaning on the counter, and telling the proprietor that the lustre of his whiskey had been in no sort dimmed, when the word—just then delivered by the wires—reached him of that proposed invasion in the cause of prohibition. it was mr. wright who bore the tidings, and the face of that merchant prince showed grave.
“well,” said mr. masterson, in tones of relief, “you see, bob, that i was right when i resigned. i’d be in a box now if i were sheriff.”
“what is your idea of a course?” asked mr. wright. “it stands to reason that the camp can’t go dry; at the same time i wouldn’t want to see it meander into trouble.”
it was thought wise by mr. wright, after exhaustively conferring with mr. masterson, to call a meeting of the male inhabitants of dodge. there might be discovered in a multitude of counsel some pathway that would lead them out of this law-trap, while permitting them to drink.
mr. wright presided at the meeting, which was large. there were speeches, some for peace and some for war, but none which opened any gate. dodge was where it started, hostile, but undecided. somebody called on mr. masterson; what would he suggest? mr. masterson, being no orator and fluent only with a gun, tried to escape. however, over-urged by mr. wright, he spake as follows:
“gentlemen,” said mr. masterson, “i was so recently your sheriff that the habit of upholding law and maintaining order is still strong upon me, and it may be that, thus crippled, i am but ill qualified to judge of the wisdom of ones who have counseled killing and scalping these prohibition people who will favour dodge to-morrow afternoon. my impression, however, is that such action, while perhaps natural under the circumstances, would be grossly premature. it would bring down the state upon us, and against such odds even dodge might not sustain herself. all things considered, my advice is this: close every saloon an hour before our visitors arrive, and keep them closed while they remain. every man—for there would be no sense in enduring hardships uselessly—should provide himself in advance with say a gallon. the saloons closed, our visitors would be powerless. what a man doesn’t see he doesn’t know; and those emissaries of a tyrannous prohibition would be unable to make oath. in the near finish, they would leave. once they had departed, dodge could again go forward on its liberty-loving way. those are my notions, gentlemen; and above all i urge that nothing like violence be indulged in. let our visitors enter and depart in peace. do not put it within their power to say that dodge was not a haven of peace. you must remember that not alone your liberty but your credit is at stake, and play a quiet hand according.”
while mr. wright and that conservative contingent which he represented approved the counsel of mr. masterson, there were others who condemned it. at the head of these latter was the turbulent bear creek johnson. after the meeting had adjourned, that riot-urging individual branded the words of mr. masterson as pusillanimous. for himself, the least that bear creek would consent to was the roping up of the visitors the moment they appeared. they were to be dragged at the hocks of a brace of cow-ponies until such time as they renounced their iniquitous mission, and promised respect to dodge’s appetites and needs.
“as for that masterson party,” said the bitter bear creek, who being five drinks ahead was pot-valiant, “what’s he got to do with the play? he got cold feet an’ quit ten months ago. now he allows he’ll come buttin’ in an’ tell people what kyards to draw, an’ how to fill an’ bet their hands. some gent ought to wallop a gun over his head. an’ if some gent don’t, i sort o’ nacherally reckon i’ll about do the trick myse’f.”
since bear creek johnson reserved these views for souls who were in sympathy therewith, meanwhile concealing the same from such as mr. masterson and mr. wright, there arose no one to contradict him. made bold by silent acquiescence, and exalted of further drinks, bear creek drew about him an outcast coterie in the rear room of mr. webster’s alamo. it was there, with bear creek to take the lead, they laid their heads together for the day to come.
there be men on earth who are ever ready for trouble that, specifically, isn’t trouble of their own. they delight in dancing when others pay the fiddler. numbers of such gathered with the radical bear creek; and being gathered, he and they pooled their wicked wits in devising fardels for those expected enemies.
when, next day, our executives of prohibition came into dodge, they were amazed, while scarcely gratified, to find every rum shop locked up fast and tight. the dance hall, the alhambra, the long branch and the alamo, acting on the hint of mr. masterson, had closed their doors, and not a drink of whiskey, not even for rattlesnake-bite, could have been bought from one end of the street to the other. not that this paucity of rum-selling seemed to bear heavily upon the community. there were never so many gentlemen of dodge whom one might describe as wholly and successfully drunk. the boardwalks were thronged with their staggering ranks, as the visitors made a tour of the place.
the visitors were pompous, well-fed men of middle age; and while they said they had come to perform a duty, one skilled in man-reading might have told at a glance that their great purpose was rather to tickle vanity, and demonstrate how unsparing would be their spirit when the question became one of moral duty.
when the duo first appeared their faces wore a ruddy, arrogant hue. as they went about upon that tour of inspection they began to pale. there was something in the lowering eye of what fragment of the public looked to the leadership of bear creek johnson, to whiten them.
pale as linen three times bleached, following fifteen minutes spent about the streets, the visitors—their strutting pomposity visibly reduced—made a shortest wake to gallon’s, being the hostelry they designed to honour with their custom. gallon’s was a boarding-house distinguished as “prohibition,” and the visitors proposed to illustrate it and give it fashion in the estimation of sober men, by bestowing upon it their patronage. two hours later, the proprietor would have paid money to dispense with the advertisement.
once the invaders were housed, by twos and fives and tens, the disengaged inhabitants of dodge began to assemble in front of gallon’s. some came in a temper of curiosity. the band with bear creek johnson, however, entertained a different feeling. their taste was for the strenuous. they set forth this fact with imitations of the yelp of the coyote. withal, they were constantly closing up about the refuge of the visitors, until they stood, a packed and howling mob, with which it was no more than a question of minutes before ugly action would begin.
bear creek johnson was in the van, fostering and fomenting a sentiment for violence. the unworthy bear creek was not lacking in qualities of leadership; he realised, as by an instinct, that a mob must have time to pen before it is put to work. wherefore, bear creek, while cursing and threatening with the rest, delayed. he paused, as it were, with his thumb on the angry pulse of the multitude, waiting to seize the moment psychological.
hemmed in by four hundred pushing, threatening, cursing, human wolves, those agents of prohibition whitely sat and shivered. they knew their peril; also they felt that sense of utter helplessness which will only come to men when forced to face the brainless fury of a mob. what should be done? what could be done? in that moment of extremity the proprietor of the boarding-house, with the fear of death upon him, could think of nothing beyond sending for mr. wright.
to be courier in this hour of strain a girl of twelve was sent out by a rear door. there was craft in this selection of a messenger. no western mob, however bloody of intention, would dream of interfering with a girl. besides, mr. wright would never refuse a girl’s request.
mr. wright might have been as pleased had he not been called upon. to oppose the insurrectionists was neither a work of pleasure nor of safety, and the opportunity to thus put himself in feud with a half regiment of men whose blood was up, and with whom when the smoke of battle blew aside he must still do business, could not be called a boon. but the little girl’s lips were blue with terror, and her frightened eyes showed round and big, as she besought mr. wright to save the life of her father—it was he to be proprietor of gallon’s—and the lives of those visiting gentlemen, representative of prohibition. getting wearily up from the poker game in which he was employed, mr. wright made ready to go with the little girl.
“you had better come too, bat,” said mr. wright, addressing mr. masterson. “i think you can do more with a dodge mob than i can. they’ve seen more of your shooting.”
“of course i’ll go, bob,” returned mr. masterson, laying down a reluctant hand in which dwelt a pair of aces—a highly hopeful pair before the draw!—“of course i’ll go. but it seems hard that i must leave just when the hands are beginning to run my way. i wish bear creek had put off this uprising another hour. i’d have been a mile on velvet.”
when mr. masterson and mr. wright arrived at the seat of war, the mob was more or less impressed and its howls lost half their volume. mr. masterson and mr. wright walked through the close-set ranks, and went in by the front door. no back door for mr. masterson and mr. wright; especially under the eyes of ones whom they must presently outface.
“what is your desire, gentlemen?” asked mr. masterson, when he and mr. wright found themselves with the beleaguered ones.
“there is a train in an hour and thirty minutes,” replied the attorney general. he showed the colour of a sheet, but his upper lip was stiffer than was that of his companion, which twitched visibly. “can you put us aboard?”
“now i don’t see why not,” returned mr. masterson.
“don’t see why not!” exclaimed the president of the prohibition league; “don’t see why not! you hear those murderers outside, and you don’t see why not!” it should be mentioned in the gentleman’s defence that his nerves were a-jangle. “don’t see why not!” he murmured, sinking back as a deeper roar came from without.
“don’t let the racket outside disturb you,” said mr. masterson in a reassuring tone. “we’ll manage to get that outfit back in its corral.”
“but do you guarantee our safety?” gasped the other.
“as to that,” returned mr. masterson, “you gentlemen understand that i am not issuing life insurance. what i say is this: whoever gets you will have to go over me to make the play.”
mr. masterson and mr. wright conversed apart. there was no haste; the mob would confine itself to threats and curses while they remained in the house.
“perhaps i’d better give ’em a talk, bob,” said mr. masterson, at the close of their confab. “there are two things to do. we must get rid of bear creek. and we must let it look like the rest of ’em had taken a trick. i think i’ll suggest that we make our visitors give us those temperance speeches. they won’t want to do it; and if we let the boys sort o’ compel them to be eloquent, they’ll most likely quit satisfied. if we don’t do something of the kind, it’s my opinion they’ll take a shot at us before ever we place these shuddering strangers on the train.”
“do what you reckon best,” returned mr. wright. “i’ll back your game.”
mr. masterson opened the front door and, with mr. wright, stepped forth. he considered the mob a moment with a quiet eye, and then raised his hand as if to invite attention.
“gentlemen,” said he, “if i talk to you, it’s on your account. the people inside, in whose honour you’ve assembled, intend to board the first train for the east.”
“board nothin’! let’s swing ’em off!” cried a cowboy from south of the river. he was carrying his lariat in his hand; as he spoke he whirled the loop about his head, knocking off the sombreros of those nearest him. “let’s swing ’em off!” he shouted.
“i’ll swing you off, if you don’t give that rope a rest!” returned an irate one, unhatted, and with that he collared the child of cows, and threw him backward into the press. “go on, bat,” said this auxiliary, having abated the cowboy and his rope; “give us the layout of your little game.”
“my little game,” continued mr. masterson calmly, “is this: i’ve passed my word that no harm shall come to these people. and for this reason. if they were even a little injured, the prohibition papers would make bloody murder of it. inside of hours, the soldiers from the fort would be among us, and the town under martial law. they would be sending you prairie dogs to bed at nine o’clock, with a provost marshal to tuck you in; and none of you would like that. i wouldn’t like it myself.”
“let the soldiers come!” shouted bear creek johnson from the extreme wing of the mob. bear creek had drawn from the whiskey under his belt a more than normal courage. moreover, he felt that it was incumbent upon him to make a stand. considering those plans he had laid, and which included driving mr. masterson out of town should he have the impudence to stand in their way, bear creek knew that otherwise he would be disparaged in the estimation of his followers and suffer in his good repute. he resolved to put forward a bold face, and bully mr. masterson. “let the soldiers come!” bear creek repeated. “we won’t ask bat masterson to give us any help.”
“is that you, bear creek?” observed mr. masterson, turning on that popular idol.
mr. masterson stepped off the porch and walked down upon the grass. this brought bear creek clear of the herd. no one, in case bear creek became a target, would be in line of mr. masterson’s fire. bear creek noticed this as something sinister.
“i reckon now,” continued mr. masterson, still edging in between bear creek and his reserves, “that in case of trouble, you would take command, and run the soldiers out.” then, solemnly, while mr. wright from the porch scanned those to the rear of mr. masterson for an earliest hostile sign: “bear creek, you’ve been holding forth that you’re a heap bad, but i, for one, am unconvinced. i understand how you snuffed out the soldier at fort lyons; but i also understand how that soldier was dead drunk. i’ve likewise heard how you bumped off the party on the cimarron; at the same time that party was plumb tender and not heeled. wherefore, i decline to regard those incidents as tests. you must give dodge a more conclusive proof of gameness before you can dictate terms to the camp. you’ve got your irons! what do you wear ’em for?”
as though to point the question, mr. masterson’s six-shooter jumped from its belt, and exploded in the direction of bear creek. the big bullet tore the ground two inches from his right foot. with a screech of dismay, bear creek soared into the air.
even while mr. masterson was talking, bear creek johnson’s fortitude had been sweating itself away. the catlike creeping in between him and his constituents had also served to unhinge him. indeed he was in such frame that the sudden explosion of mr. masterson’s pistol exploded with it his hysteria. bear creek could do nothing but make the shameful screeching leap described.
away went his nerves like a second flock of frightened sheep when, just as he felt the grass again beneath him, there came a second flash, and a second bullet buried itself in the ground, grazing his left foot. bear creek made another skyward leap, and evolved another horror-bitten screech to which the first was as a whisper. when he came down, a third bullet ripped a furrow between his legs.
bear creek johnson had so far recovered possession of himself that at the third shot he didn’t leap. he ran. the ignoble bear creek fled from the blazing mr. masterson with a speed that would have amazed the antelopes.
“it’s as i thought!” remarked mr. masterson, regretfully; “quit like a dog, and never even reached for his gun!” then, returning to the public, which had been vastly interested by those exercises in which bear creek had performed, mr. masterson resumed. “as i was saying, when bear creek interrupted me, i’ve given my word to the folks inside that they shall not meet with injury. but there’s one matter upon which, if you’ll back me up, i’d like to enter.” at this, certain scowls which wrinkled the brows of the more defiant, began to abate by the fraction of a shadow. “these men,” went on mr. masterson, “made boasts before they came here that they would speak on temperance and prohibition. i understand, from what they now say, that they have given up this design. i don’t like that. i don’t want them running into the papers with a lie about the lawlessness of dodge, and how we wouldn’t permit free speech. if i were you, i’d have these ciceros out, cost what it might, and they’d either make those speeches or give a reason why.”
“you’re dead right, bat,” cried one enthusiast. “smoke ’em out! make ’em talk! if they’ve got anything ag’inst whiskey, let ’em spit it out. i don’t owe whiskey a splinter; an’, you bet! these trantlers ain’t goin’ back to topeka, poisonin’ the public mind, and putting it up that dodge wasn’t safe to talk in.”
“taking the gentleman’s remarks,” observed mr. masterson gravely, “as reflecting the common sentiment, i move you that mr. wright be instructed to go to our visitors and say that we’re waiting with impatience to hear them on the dual topics of temperance in its moral aspects, and prohibition as a police regulation of the state. those in favour say, ay!”
there was a thunder-gust of ays!
“the ays have it,” confirmed mr. masterson. “bob, will you go inside and get the muzzles off the orators? when ready, parade ’em before this enlightened and sympathetic audience, and tell ’em they’ve never had such a chance to distinguish themselves since the mexican war.”
mr. wright withdrew in submission to instructions. while he was absent, mr. masterson indulged his audience with a few more words, lowering his voice as though what he said were confidential.
“mr. wright,” remarked mr. masterson, “will shortly appear with our visitors. during the exercises, i trust that nothing trenching upon disturbance will be indulged in. i shall preside; and i need not call attention to the fact that there are still three cartridges in my gun. also, i might add that i don’t always shoot at a party’s moccasins and miss.”
it was the only thing they could do. with mr. masterson and mr. wright to give them courage, and despair to lend them grace, those visiting ones spake upon whiskey as the devil’s broth and the hideous evils of intemperance. all things considered, they made excellent addresses. not the best that was in them, perhaps; but what then? patrick henry would have fumbled for a word were he to feel that at any moment an auditor might step forward and edit a faulty sentence with his colt’s. it is to the glory of dodge, that the orators were broken in upon by nothing more lethal than applause, while each was made prouder by a whirlwind of cheers when he closed.
it was evening in the alhambra. those prohibition folk were distant by one hundred safe and healthful miles, and dodge had returned to the even tenor of its ways. suddenly mr. wright delivered himself of this reproof.
“there’s one fault i’ve got to find, bat; there’s one thing i won’t get over soon. why, i ask you, why, when you had him dead to rights, did you miss that bear creek?”
“i know how you feel, bob,” returned mr. masterson in a manner of self-reproach, “and i despair of framing up an apology that will square me with dodge. why didn’t i down bear creek? it will sound childish”—here mr. masterson’s eye took on a twinkle that was sly—“but, bob, i’m no longer sheriff; and, between us, i’m afraid i don’t shoot true in my private capacity.”
