A traveling
midway had cast its tents in a vacant square in competition with
the regular attractions of the town, and everywhere the
hard-riding punchers were "night herding" in full regalia.
There was a big masked ball in the street, and another in the
Masonic Hall, while here and there flared the lights of the faker
with something to sell. Among these last was "Soapy" Sothern,
doing a thriving business in selling suckers and bars wrapped
with greenbacks. Crowds tramped the streets blowing horns and
throwing confetti, and everywhere was a large sprinkling of men
in high-heeled boots, swinging along with the awkward,
stiff-legged gait of the cowboy. Sometimes a girl was hanging on
his arm, and again he was "whooping it up with the boys"; but in
either case the range-rider's savings were burning a hole through
his pockets with extreme rapidity.
Jim McWilliams and the sheepman Bannister had that day sealed a
friendship that was to be as enduring as life. The owner of the
sheep ranch was already under heavy obligation to the foreman of
the Lazy D, but debt alone is not enough on which to found soul
brotherhood. There must be qualities of kinship in the primeval
elements of character.
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