one else who did wear a
star backing you. If you trained with the minority you were rather
sure, sooner or later, to have your name engrossed on a warrant. In
such an era it was as well to vote wisely; else, in the vernacular,
you were "short" in your home town, which meant you could not go back
there.

How much the Earps knew of what their henchmen did is beyond the
telling in this story. An official history of Arizona published under
the auspices of the State legislature and written by Major McClintock,
an old Westerner, states that first and last they were accused of
about 50 per cent. of the robberies which took place in the town. It
is, however, altogether possible that their cognizance of such matters
was no greater than many a city official to-day holds of crimes
committed in his bailiwick. When one comes to analyze police politics
he finds they have not changed much since the time of the Crusades:
desire for power has always blinded reformers to the misdeeds of their
followers. One thing is certain; the Earps did protect their friends,
and some of those friends were using very much the same methods which
the Apaches employed in making a living.

To a certain extent this was necessary. What one might call the highly
respectable element of the town was busy at its own affairs.
Mine-owners and merchants were deeply engrossed in getting rich. And
unless he liked gun-fighting, a man would have to be a good deal of a
busybody to give the town marshal anything more tangible than his best
wishes in the way of support. It was up to that official to look out
for himself. At any time when complications followed his attempt to
arrest a lawbreaker he could depend upon the average citizen--to get
outside the line of fire.

And the gun-fighters were eager to get into the game. They were right
on hand, to make a stand in front of the enemy if need be--but
preferably to murder the foe from behind. Which was ever the way with
the Western bad man.

There were determined men of another breed in Tombstone and the
surrounding country, men who had outfought Apaches and desperadoes on
many an occasion; dead shots who owned high moral courage. Such a man
was John Slaughter, who had established his ranch down on the Mexican
line and had driven the savages away from his neighborhood. But these
old-timers were not enlisted under the Earp banner and the town's new
rulers had only the other element for retainers.

So now Frank Stilwel