The sheriff of Ellisville looked thoughtful as he tested the machinery of the law.  He had a warrant for a new bad man who had come up from the Indian nations, and who had celebrated his first day in town by shooting two men who declined to get off the sidewalk, so that he could ride his horse more comfortably there.  The sheriff left the warrant on the table, as was his custom, this paper being usually submitted with the corpse at the inquest.  The sheriff hummed a tune as he cleaned his revolver.  He was the law.

Bill Watson, the sheriff of Ellisville, was a heavily built man, sandy-haired, red-mustached, and solid.  His legs were bowed and his carriage awkward.  He had thick, clumsy-looking fingers, whose appearance belied their deftness.  Bill Watson had gone through the Quantrell raid in his time.  It was nothing to him when he was to be killed.  Such a man is careful in his shooting, because he is careless of being shot, having therefore a vast advantage over the desperado of two or three victims, who does not yet accept the fact that his own days are numbered.  The only trouble in regard to this new bad man from below was that his mental attitude on this point was much the same as that of Sheriff Bill Watson.  Therefore the sheriff was extremely careful about the oiling of the cylinder.

The great cattle drive was at its height.  Buyers from the territorial ranges of the North and Northwest, now just beginning to open up, bid in market against the men from the markets of the East.  Prices advanced rapidly.  Men carried thousands of dollars in the pockets of their greasy “chaps.”  Silver was no longer counted.  There were hardware stores which sold guns and harness-shops which sold saddles.  There were twoscore saloons which held overflow meetings, accommodating those whom the Cottage bar would not hold.  There were three barber-shops, to which went only the very weary.  The corral of the Cottage, where the drovers stopped, was large enough to hold two hundred horses, with comfortable space for roping, and the snubbing post was grooved with the wear of many ropes.  The central street needed no paving, for it was worn hard as flint.  Long rows of cattle chutes lined the railroad yards, whence came continuous din of bellowing, crowding, maddened cattle, handled with ease and a certain exultation by men who had studied nothing but this thing.  Horsemen clattered up and down the street day and night—­riding, whether drunk or sober, with the incomparable confidence of the greatest horse country the world has ever known.  Everywhere was the bustle of a unique commerce, mingled with a colossal joy of life.  The smokes from the dugouts and shacks now began to grow still more numerous in the region round about, but there were not many homes, because there were not many women.  For this reason men always kill each other very much more gladly and regularly than they do in countries where there are many women, it appearing to them, perhaps,