e ready to head
straight for the undertaker's."

"We've got to wait either for a late moon or a rainy night; then we'll
get busy," suggested Lefever.

"He might die while you're waiting," interposed Carpy.

Lefever could not be subdued: "Not as quick as he'd die if Van Horn's
bunch caught sight of him on the road," he said sententiously. "We'll
get him down and he won't die, either."

"Well, pay for your supper, boys, and let's get away," said Carpy. "I
want some sleep."

But for Lefever and Sawdy there was little sleep that night. The
echoes of the "fatal" shot--almost fatal, as it proved, to the prestige
of the enemy--were being discussed pretty much everywhere in Sleepy Cat
and wherever men that night assembled in public places, Sawdy and
Lefever swaggered in and out at least once. The pair looked wise,
spoke obscurely, looked the crowd, large or small, over critically,
played an occasional restrained and brief finger-tattoo on the butts of
their bolstered guns and listened condescendingly to everyone that had
a theory to advance, a reminiscence to offer, or a propitiating drink
to suggest.

Wherever they could induce him to go, they dragged Laramie--at once as
an exhibit and a defi; but Laramie objected to the thoroughness with
which his companions essayed to cover the territory, and unfeelingly
withdrew from the party to go to bed. Sawdy and Company, undismayed by
the defection, continued to haunt the high places until the last
sympathizer with Van Horn and Company had been challenged and bullied
or silenced.

But the differing sympathies on the situation in Sleepy Cat were not to
be adjusted in a single night, either by force or persuasion. The
whole town took sides and the cattlemen found the most defenders. What
might be designated, but with modesty, as "big business" in Sleepy Cat
stood stubbornly, despite the violence of their methods, with Van Horn,
Doubleday and their friends; the interest of such business lay with the
men that bought the most supplies. The banks and the merchants were
thus pretty much aligned on one side. The surgeon of the town
professed neutrality--at least as regarded operations--for he was
needed to administer to both factions. Harry Tenison, as dealer of the
big game in town and owner of the big hotel, was of necessity neutral;
though men like himself and Carpy were rightly suspected of leaning
toward Laramie, if not even as far as toward Abe Hawk. The open
sympath