a number of the Earp faction in front of the
saloon, both outfits heavily armed, the members of each glowering
across the street at those of the other.

Now Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and others of the law-and-order party
had come here with big reputations from Dodge City, where they had
taken part in more than one affair when the lead was flying. They had
sustained those reputations by their deeds in Tombstone; they were
champions--"He Wolves." And so one noontime when he was standing on
the sidewalk among his fellow outlaws, John Ringo was seized with an
idea.

He looked across the street at the members of the Earp party, who were
regarding the desperadoes in ominous silence. The idea grew more
powerful, until it owned him. He stepped down from the sidewalk's edge
into the roadway, crossed it, and came to a halt within a few feet of
his enemies. Addressing Wyatt Earp by name--so goes the story--

"This sort of thing," John Ringo said, "has been going on for a long
time now. Pretty soon there's bound to be a big killing if it keeps
up. Now I've got a proposition. You, or Doc Holliday if you'd rather
have him, step into the street here with me, and the two of us will
shoot it out, and, if you're game, why we'll do it holding the
opposite corner of a handkerchief in our teeth. I give my word, my
gang will stand by the result."

Wyatt Earp made no answer. What temptation that offer held to him one
can judge only by the fact that he was a bold man who had a long
record of large deeds to his credit. But also he was the recognized
head of a movement for law and order, a movement which had already
stopped indiscriminate street-shooting in Tombstone; just at this time
he was being groomed in certain quarters as a candidate for sheriff,
and the banner of his party was emblazoned with the word Reform.

It is easy enough to see how John Ringo was behind the times when he
made that proposition on Tombstone's main street. It is easy also to
imagine his feelings when without a word by way of answer or
acknowledgment the members of the Earp faction stood regarding him. He
turned his back upon them and he recrossed the street, and when he had
gained the opposite sidewalk they were gone within Bob Hatch's
saloon.

Johnny Behan was sheriff then, politically an enemy of the Earps and
politically friendly to the outlaws. He was sitting in his office with
young William Breckenbridge, his diplomatic deputy, when some one
brought wor