l robbed stages on the Bisbee road until the
drivers got to know his voice quite well; and he swaggered through the
Tombstone dance-halls bestowing the rings which he had stripped from
the fingers of women passengers upon his latest favorite. Ike and
Billy Clanton enlarged their herds with cattle and horses from other
men's ranges, and sold beef with other men's brands to Tombstone
butchers. And taking it altogether, the whole crew, from Doe Holliday
down, did what they could to bring popular disfavor upon the heads of
the new peace officers.

But if their followers were lacking in the quality of moral courage,
that cannot be said of the Earp brothers. And not long after they took
the reins in their strong hands, an occasion arose wherein they proved
their caliber. Wyatt in particular showed that he was made of stern
stuff.

It came about as a result of the reforms under the new regime. After
the manner of their Dodge City administration the brothers ruled in
Tombstone. They forbade the practice of shooting up the town. He who
sought to take possession of a dance-hall according to the old
custom, which consisted of driving out the inmates with drawn
revolvers and extinguishing the lights with forty-five caliber slugs,
was forthwith arrested. To ride a horse into a saloon and order drinks
for all hands meant jail and a heavy fine. To slay a gambler, or make
a gun-play in a gambling-house, when luck was running badly, resulted
in prosecution.

Virgil Earp attended to these matters, and after several incidents
wherein he disarmed ugly men whose friends stood by eager to let
daylight into the new marshal, he owned a certain amount of prestige.
It is only fair to remark in passing that he had a disposition--in
ticklish cases--to shoot first and ask questions afterward; but that
was recognized as an officer's inalienable right in those rude days.

Now this new order of things did not meet universal popular favor in
Tombstone. There were always three or four hundred miners off shift on
the streets, and while a large percentage of them were peaceable men,
there was a boisterous element. This element, and the cow-boys who had
been in the habit of celebrating their town comings after the good old
fashion, felt resentful. An occasional killing of one of their number
with the invariable verdict from a carefully picked coroner's jury,
"met his death while resisting an officer in performance of his duty,"
made the resentment mor