“But you look bigger than sheriff to anybody!” she replied, indignation large in her heart.
“In this country, Frances, a sheriff is a pretty sizable man,” he said, his thoughtful eyes on the fire, “about the biggest man they can conceive, next only to the president himself. Up here in the cattle country the greatness of men is dimmed, their magnitude being measured by appreciable results. The offices of lawmaker, governor, and such as the outside world invest with their peculiar dignity, are 325 incidental, indefinite—all but negative, here. It’s different with a sheriff. He’s the man who comes riding with his guns at his side; they can see him perform. All the law that they know centers in him; all branches of government, as they understand his powers. Yes, a sheriff is something of a figure in this county, Frances, and to be nominated for that office by one party and indorsed by another is just about the biggest compliment a man can receive.”
“But surely, Alan, you’ll not accept it?”
“Why, I think so,” he returned, thoughtfully. “I think I’d be worth more to this county as sheriff than I would be as—as governor, let us say.”
“Yes, but they go shooting sheriffs,” she protested.
“They’ll not be doing so much careless and easy shooting around here since Colonel—Brigadier-General Landcraft—and that sounds more like his size, too—gave them a rubdown with the iron hand. The cattle barons’ day is over; their sun went down when Mark Thorn brought the holy scare to Saul Chadron’s door.”
“Father is of the same opinion. Do you know, Alan, the whole story about that horrible old man Thorn is in the eastern papers?”
“Is it possible?”
“With a Cheyenne date-line,” she nodded, “the whole story—who hired him to skulk and kill, and a list of his known crimes. Father says if there was anything lacking in the fight you made on the cattlemen, 326 this would finish them. It’s a terrible story—poor Nola read it, and learned for the first time her father’s connection with Thorn. She’s humiliated and heartbroken over it all.”
“With sufficient reason,” he nodded.