scores was come; that the moment of hand grips with the forces which operated through the Killer and through the night slaughter of sheep was soon to strike.
Mild-tempered, bald-headed, little Squirrel-toothed Smiley, who was the proprietor of the Boston Cash Store and who sang tenor in the Two Moons Excelsior Quartette, was seen to enter Hopkins' hardware store and purchase a .45 with a barrel long as his forearm and a gaudy holster in Mexican-worked leather. Old Man Rogers, president of the Grangers' Bank, went out on the street and picked up two renegade cow-punchers to come and sit just inside the door of his establishment with their holsters moved round to the front—and Old Man Rogers was notoriously afraid of a giant fire-cracker.
The crowd that stood before the courthouse kept patient vigil hour on hour. No sign from the jail or the sheriff's office. Not a hint as to the four riders whom the swinging gate of the jail yard had swallowed up.
Woolly Annie was seen to enter the main door of the courthouse with her two attendant guards. She was absent from view about fifteen minutes, then reappeared on the court-
