content among the drivers. In all
Thief River disturbances, whether a raid on cattlemen, a stage
hold-up, a gun fight, or a tedious war of words, the Calabasas men,
sometimes apparently for the mere maintaining of prestige, appeared to
take leading roles. After de Spain's declaration the grievance against
Elpaso was made a general one along the line. His stage was singled
out and ridden at times both by Sandusky and Logan--the really
dangerous men of the Spanish Sinks--and by Gale Morgan and Sassoon to
stir up trouble.

But old Frank Elpaso was far from being a fool. A fight with any one
of these men meant that somebody would be killed, and no one could
tell just who, Elpaso shrewdly reckoned, until the roll-call at the
end of it. He therefore met truculence with diplomacy, threatening
looks with flattery, and hard words with a long story. Moreover, all
Calabasas knew that Elpaso, if he had to, would fight, and that the
eccentric guard was not actually to be cornered with impunity. Even
Logan, who, like Sandusky, was known to be without fear and without
mercy, felt at least a respect for Elpaso's shortened shotgun, and
stopped this side actual hostilities with him. When the June clean-up
of the No. 2 Thief River mine came through--one hundred and six
thousand dollars in gold bullion under double guard--and a Calabasas
contingent of night-riders tried to stop the treasure, rumor along the
Sinks had it that Elpaso's slugs, delivered at the right moment, were
responsible for Deaf Sandusky's long illness at Bear Dance, and the
failure of the subsequent masked attack on the up stage.

Sassoon, however, owing to the indignity now put upon him, also
nourished a particular grievance against the meditative guard, and his
was one not tempered either by prudence or calculation. His chance
came one night when Elpaso had unwisely allowed himself to be drawn
into a card game at Calabasas Inn. Elpaso was notoriously a stickler
for a square deal at cards. He was apparently the only man at
Calabasas that hoped for such a thing, and certainly the only one so
rash as to fight for it--yet he always did. A dispute on this occasion
found him without a friend in the room. Sassoon reached for him with a
knife.

McAlpin was the first to get the news at the barn. He gave first aid
to the helpless guard, and, without dreaming he could be got to a
surgeon alive, rushed him in a light wagon to the hospital at Sleepy
Cat, where it was said that