Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell by Tom Clavin

Author:Tom Clavin [Clavin, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ACT IV

THE GUNFIGHT

Oriental Saloon

(COURTESY OF ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY)

Some few of us pioneers are entitled to credit for what we have done. We have been the fore-runners of government. If it hadn’t been for me and a few like me there never would have been any government in some of these towns.

—DOC HOLLIDAY

Chapter Eighteen

“RATHER DIE FIGHTING”

It is never a good sign for law-abiding citizens to see Johnny Ringo rush into town, both him and his horse all in a lather. So it had to raise eyebrows in Tombstone on September 9 when the cowboy leader made such a dramatic entrance. He was looking for Sherman McMasters (more about him later) and obviously had to find him right away. Virgil Earp was informed that Ringo was in the city. As it happened, the marshal also was looking for McMasters.

Earlier that year, a stagecoach had been robbed near Globe to the north. It was believed that McMasters and another cowboy, Pony Deal, were the thieves. Since then, Bob Paul, having settled in as the Pima County sheriff, had been keeping an eye out for Deal, who wisely had made himself scarce. But not for long enough—that second week in September, Paul finally got his man. He relayed this information to Virgil, who telegraphed back that he had spotted McMasters in Tombstone and could arrest him.

He was waiting for Paul’s response when Johnny Ringo blew into town. Another reason he was in a hurry was that he hoped to get in, warn McMasters about Deal’s apprehension, and get out before he, too, was arrested. There was an existing warrant for that August poker game in Galeyville when Ringo had stolen everyone else’s winnings. Virgil knew of it, and suddenly this was turning into a busy day when Paul replied that McMasters should be picked up.

Virgil grabbed a gun and recruited James Earp. The bartender could not have been pleased at the prospect of going up against Johnny Ringo, but he was the only Earp brother available: Wyatt and Morgan had already been recruited, by Marshall Williams of Wells Fargo, to investigate the holdup of the Bisbee stagecoach the night before. Virgil knew that McMasters kept his horse at the O.K. Corral, so after poking their heads into a few saloons McMasters usually frequented, Virgil and James went there.

They were too late. Ringo had found the other cowboy, told him about Pony Deal being behind bars, and the two had stolen fresh horses and left Tombstone in as much of a hurry as Ringo had entered it. The anticipated busy and possibly dangerous day for the police chief had turned into a bad one.

The increasing turmoil in Tombstone and its surroundings was too much for any one lawman. What was needed was strong leadership at the top of the territorial government. Arizona did not have that. Governor John C. Frémont was often not in Tucson or even the territory, and sometimes not in the western half of the United States at all when he was back east attending to business and political interests.

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