by GEORGE S. HARNEY

EXPOSITION PRESS . NEW YORK

Copyright, 1951, by George S. Harney

_All rights reserved
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form_

Published by the Exposition Press Inc.
386 Fourth Avenue, New York 16, N.Y.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Consolidated Book Producers, Inc.
Designed by Morry M. Gropper

_It is very true, that the small things in
life are sometimes the most important._
--CHURCHILL

PART ONE

1

In all her days of presenting the spectacular, Cheyenne had never
witnessed a more even contest than was now being staged this day in
the early autumn of 1932, at the circus grounds in the city's suburbs.
It was a race between a midget and a lout.

The little man ducked under the garish banners portraying the wonders
of the Kid Show, raced the interval to the "big top" of the Great
International, then back again, closely followed by a lanky oaf whose
longer strides evened the contest.

"I'll cut yer ears off," the pursuer snarled, as the midget swung
around the pole supporting the snake banner, thus gaining a distance
on his enemy. "En I'll cut yer heart out," the big one yelled as he
stumbled and almost fell.

As evidence that he would make good his terrifying threat, the lout
flourished a clasp-knife in his right hand; with his left, he made
futile grabs at the midget's coat tail.

The crowd that watched this contest was not of the circus. It was a
gathering of those who came to the lot at an early hour to watch the
Circus City set up shop for the one-day stand in this western
metropolis. Some of the onlookers were railroad men, off duty; some
were cow hands from nearby ranches; a few Indians from the reservation
beyond the willow-fringed Lodgepole Creek, lent their stoical
presence, while several soldiers from the newly christened Fort Warren
with or without official sanction, were on hand to witness the setup.

It was the accepted judgment of those present that the midget and the
lout were staging a ballyhoo--a "come-on"--preliminary to the opening
of the Kid Show. There was no applause as the little man outwitted his
follower by an adroit dodge under the ticket wagon. No one tripped
the lout as the