The night breeze carried the stirring story of riot and uproar to the waiting mult.i.tude in the Dance Hall. Those waiting ones looked first their amazement, then their delight. As by one impulse they tore through the door and made, hotfoot, for the Long Branch. By conservative estimates, founded upon the whole number of shots, there should be at least five dead and fifteen wounded.

As the advance guard arrived at the Long Branch they found Mr. Short outside.

"Bat's downed Bob Wright," remarked Mr. Short; "plugged him plumb centre."

Inside went the hilarious Dance Hallers. The astute Mr. Short followed, closed the door and set his back against it.

"It's eight o'clock, Mr. Webster," remarked Mr. Short. "We must begin to count." It was observable that in the hand that did not hold the watch Mr. Short held a six-shooter.

Mr. Webster was in a flutter of nerves; he had been the only one in the Long Branch who did not understand and had not antic.i.p.ated those frantic excesses of Mr. Tighlman, Cimarron Bill and others of that heroic firing party. Mr. Webster was in no wise clear as to what had happened. Borne upon by a feeling of something wrong he made a protest.

"Stop!" he cried, "there's a lot of Updegraffe men in here."

"No, sir," responded Mr. Short, coldly, while a gray glimmer, a kind of danger signal it was, began to show in his eye. "Every gent inside the Long Branch is for Bat Masterson or he wouldn't be here. Also, to suggest fraud," concluded Mr. Short, as Mr. Webster seemed about to speak, "would be an attack upon my honour, me ownin' the joint."

Now the honour of Mr. Short, next to Mr. Short's six-shooter, was the most feverish thing in Dodge. The mere mention of it sent a shiver through Mr. Webster. Without parley he surrendered tamely, and the count at the Long Branch began. The total proved satisfactory; the returns gave Mr. Masterson two hundred and sixty votes.

"Let us go over to the Dance Hall," said Mr. Wright, "and see what Kelly and Peac.o.c.k have to report."

They were saved the journey; Mr. Kelly and Mr. Peac.o.c.k, the latter bewildered and fear-ridden in the face of the unknown, just then came into the Long Branch. "Only thirty-three for Updegraffe," said Mr.

Kelly. "That's correct, ain't it, Peac.o.c.k?"

Mr. Peac.o.c.k gasped, but seemed to nod a.s.sent.

"Mr. Masterson, it would appear, is elected," observed Mr. Wright, benignantly, "by a majority of two hundred and twenty-seven. It is a tribute to his popularity. The whole vote, however, is much smaller than I looked for," and Mr. Wright beamed.

"I think," said Mr. Kelly, judgmatically, "that thar's a pa.s.sel of Updegraffe people stampedin' about the streets. But, of course, since they weren't in the Dance Hall, me an' Peac.o.c.k had no authority to incloode 'em; did we, Peac.o.c.k?"

Mr. Peac.o.c.k mopped his moonlike countenance and shook his head in forlornest fashion. He was too much cast down to oppose the word of Mr.

Kelly.

Bear Creek Johnson, eye aflame, a-bristle for trouble, pushed through.

Cimarron Bill, who was the soul of business at a time like this, met the outraged Bear Creek in the door.

"Whatever do you reckon you're after?" queried Cimarron Bill, maintaining the while a dangerous eye.

Bear Creek Johnson surveyed Cimarron Bill, running him up and down with an uneasy, prudent glance. He smelled disaster off him as folk smell fire in a house.

"Me?" he returned, mildly. "Which I simply comes pirootin' over to move we make the 'lection of Bat Masterson yoonanimous."

Thus did the _ruse de guerre_ of Mr. Masterson result in victory; thus was he made sheriff of Ford.

CHAPTER VI

THE FATAL GRAt.i.tUDE OF MR. KELLY

It was at the election following the one which made Mr. Masterson sheriff of Ford County that Mr. Kelly, proprietor of the Alhambra, became mayor of Dodge. Mr. Masterson, aside from being a natural captain of men, had had his genius for strategy ripened as a scout-pupil of the great Ben Clark during the Cheyenne wars, and on this ballot occasion contributed deeply to the victory of Mr. Kelly. Mr. Masterson came forward and withstood certain Mexicans, who otherwise would have exercised the ballot to Mr. Kelly's disadvantage. The Mexicans belonged with the Cross-K brand, which had its range across the river; and since Mr. Walker, proprietor of the Cross-K, was an enemy of Mr. Kelly, they were rightfully regarded by Mr. Masterson as tools of the opposition.

Mr. Masterson urged, and with justice, that an extension of the franchise to Mexicans would be subversive of good morals, and offensive to the purer sentiment of Dodge.

"This is, or should be," said Mr. Masterson, "a white man's government, and how long, I ask, will it survive if Mexicans be permitted a voice in its affairs? If we are going to take the limit off in this ridiculous fashion we might as well send for Bear Shield's band of Cheyennes and tell them to get into the game. To grant Mexicans the right to vote is to make preposterous that freedom for which our fathers fought and bled and died, and should republican inst.i.tutions be thus trailed in the dust, I see nothing for it but an appeal to arms."

This long speech was made to the judges of election, who were fair men and friends of Mr. Kelly. There were ten of the Mexicans and the contest was close; the judges remembered these things, and the position taken by Mr. Masterson, in defence of an unsullied suffrage, was sustained.

"It wasn't worth a battle," explained Mr. Walker in later comment on Mr.

Masterson's oration, "or I might have called that bluff of Bat's about an appeal to arms."

When Mr. Kelly was inaugurated in the discharge of his high trust, his earliest feeling was one of favour to Mr. Masterson; for his majority had been but five, and Mr. Kelly was a grateful man. The situation at a first blink baffled the friendship of Mr. Kelly. What could he do for Mr. Masterson? The latter, as sheriff of Ford, already held an office superior even to that of Mr. Kelly's. Clearly, Mr. Masterson was beyond and above the touch of his grat.i.tude, as though it stood on tiptoe; he must sit down and suffer a sense of obligation which he could not discharge. These truths came home to him after hours of profound thought, and he sighed as he reflected on his helplessness.

But Mr. Kelly was enterprising, and grat.i.tude is as apt as necessity itself to sharpen the edge of invention. That debt he owed Mr. Masterson had not borne upon him two days before he began to see a way in which he might return the other's friendly deeds upon his head. As mayor Mr.

Kelly, under the State law just pa.s.sed, could construct the post of marshal. The town had never had such an officer. Thus far it had needed none; Mr. Masterson, in his good-natured way, had stepped outside the strict duties of his place as sheriff and, without money and without price, acted the part of marshal. In the latter role, as honourable as it was perilous, Mr. Masterson's six-shooters were already looked upon by Dodge as the local paladiun.

Mr. Kelly, mayor, decided that he would create the post of marshal at a round stipend to him who should hold it. Also, he would name as such functionary Mr. Masterson's brother Ed. When Mr. Kelly had completed this plan he rewarded himself with four fingers of Old Jordan; a glow overspread his countenance as he considered that he might thus requite the generous interference of Mr. Masterson concerning those Cross-K Mexicans, who, if their pernicious purpose had not been frustrated, would have defeated him of his mayoralty.

Mr. Masterson was not in Dodge when this kindly resolution was reached by Mr. Kelly, being over on Crooked Creek in quest of stolen mules. It thus befell that Mr. Kelly could not consult with him touching that marshalship, and the exaltation of his brother. On second thought Mr.

Kelly did not regret the absence of Mr. Masterson; that marshalship would be a pleasant bit of news wherewith to greet him when, weary and saddle-worn, he rode in with those lost mules and the scalp of that criminal who had cut their hobbles and feloniously taken them to himself.

Still, Mr. Kelly would seek advice; this was only caution, for the jealous West is p.r.o.ne to resent a novelty in its destinies which descends upon it as a surprise. The word, therefore, was sent throughout Dodge by our careful magistrate that he meditated a marshal, with Ed Masterson as the man.

Mr. Wright approved the scheme; likewise did Mr. Short and Mr. Trask.

Mr. Webster and Mr. Peac.o.c.k were understood to disparage the design. As for Mr. Walker of the Cross-K, his condemnation became open and he was heard to loudly proclaim it to Mr. Webster across the Alamo bar.

"And," concluded the bitter Mr. Walker, replacing his empty gla.s.s on the counter, "if the Masterson family is goin' to be sawed onto this community in a body, I for one am ready to pull my freight."

"Well," casually observed Mr. Short, who had dropped in from the Long Branch to note how a rival trade progressed, "I've always held that pullin' your freight was safer than pullin' your gun."

"Perhaps I'll pull both," retorted Mr. Walker.

Mr. Walker, however, did not press the conversation to extremes. Mr.

Short was a warm adherent of Mr. Masterson; moreover, he had killed a gentleman in Tombstone for merely claiming the privilege of counting the cards. True, that person of inquiring mind had set forth his desire for information with a six-shooter, and as Mr. Short was back of the box at the time, and the bullets were addressed to him personally, his retort was upheld by all impartial men. None the less, the ready completeness of the reply made for the dignity and western standing of Mr. Short, and Mr. Walker, who knew the story, felt no ambition to go with him to the bottom of Mr. Kelly's new policy of a marshal.

When Mr. Kelly heard how Mr. Wright and Mr. Short and Mr. Trask applauded, he said that the affair was settled; those gentlemen were his friends. Messrs. Walker and Webster and Peac.o.c.k were of the opposition, and Mr. Kelly was too good an executive to listen to his enemies. He would name Ed Masterson marshal; in order that Mr. Masterson might witness his brother's elevation he would defer it as a ceremony until Mr. Masterson's return.

It was four days later when Mr. Masterson came in with those wandering mules and the particulars concerning the last moments of the bandit that stole them, and who had opposed a Winchester to Mr. Masterson in the discharge of his duty. Following his return Mr. Masterson strode into the Alhambra with the purpose of restoring himself and conquering a fatigue incident to his labours. It was then that Mr. Kelly laid open those changes contemplated in the official list of Dodge, which were to work advantage for his brother. To his amazement Mr. Masterson, on receipt of the information, became the picture of dismay.

"Why, Bat," exclaimed Mr. Kelly, alarmed by Mr. Masterson's evident disturbance, "ain't the idee all right?"

"Worst in the world," groaned Mr. Masterson. "Has Ed heard?"

"Sh.o.r.e," replied Mr. Kelly; "I nacherally told him the first flash out o' the box. Bob Wright says it's a beautiful scheme; so does Short."

"I know, Kell," said Mr. Masterson, wearily, "and no doubt Bob and Luke believe it's the thing to do. But they don't know Ed; he's no more fit to be marshal than I am to join the church."

"Oh come, Bat," cried Mr. Kelly, evincing a critical disbelief, "no gamer hand than Ed ever buckled on a gun!"