up, you fool!" called the sheriff, and, turning to Jenks, began to
mutter in consultation. Curtis advanced a step, and raising his voice
addressed the entire mob.

"As commander of this reservation, I order you to withdraw. Your
presence here is unlawful and menacing. Retire to the boundary of the
reservation, and I will use every effort to discover the murderer. If he
is in the tribe I will find him and deliver him to the county
authorities."

At this one of the same young ruffians who had challenged him before
spurred his horse close to Curtis, and with his pistol in his hand
shouted: "Not by a d---- sight. We come to take it out o' these thieves,
and we're goin' to do it. Go ahead, Winters--say the word and well clean
out the whole tribe."

Curtis looked the youth in the eye. "My boy, I advise you to make war
slowly, even with your mouth."

Calvin Streeter, with his teeth clinched, crowded his horse forward and
struck the insolent hoodlum in the face with his hat. "Shut up, or I'll
pinch your neck off! Think you're sheriff?" The belligerent retired,
snarling wild curses.

Curtis addressed himself again to Winters, assuming a tone of respect
and confidence which he did not feel. "Mr. Winters, you are here as a
representative of the courts of Pinon County. I call upon you, as
sheriff, to disperse all these men, who are here without warrant of
law!"

The sheriff hesitated, for the cattlemen were now furious and eager to
display their valor. Many of them were of the roughest types of cowboys,
the profane and reckless renegades of older communities, and being
burdened with ammunition, and foolhardy with drink, they were in no mood
to turn tail and ride away. They savagely blustered, flourishing their
revolvers recklessly.

The sheriff attempted to silence them, and said, petulantly, to Curtis:
"If I hadn't come you'd 'a' had a mob of two hundred armed men instead
of twenty. I had hard work to keep 'em back. I swore in these ten men as
my deputies. This second crowd I don't know anything about. They just
happen to be here."

Curtis knew this to be a lie, but proceeded to cajole the sheriff by
recognizing him and his authority.

"In that case I shall act." Addressing the leader of the second party,
he said: "Sheriff Winters is the legal representative of the county; you
are an unlawful mob, and I once more command you to leave the
reservation, which is federal territory, under my command."

"No, you don't! We