Bring Me His Ears

Bring Me His Ears is by Clarence Edward Mulford. Chapter I, called Hawkens' Gun Store, shows a tall, lanky Missourian leaning against the corner of a ramshackle saloon on Locust Street, St. Louis, Missouri, in the St. Louis of the early forties. The crowd is called cosmopolitan enough to suit the most exacting critic, and it includes, among others, freighters, merchants, hunters, trappers, Indians, gamblers and a frock-coated minister. Tom joins the animated stream, swinging in behind an elderly gentleman who escorts a young lady of unflurried demeanor.

The young lady drops her glove, and Tom leaps forward when a nervous horse is about to stamp it into the dirt and dust. The text says it was evident from the universal satisfaction shown that buffalo meat had been given a high place by every palate. Sanchez is no coward, knows what loyalty means and demands, and fights like a wild beast until the crash of a pistol in the hands of the officer sends him staggering on bending legs.