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 "Is it one of these county seat squabbles you've got on hand here?"

"It in't no squabble, Doc; it's a war."

"Is he alone? Hasn't he got any relatives?"

"Who? Major Bill? Yes, he's got relations, if you can call a wife a relation. Well, he's got a daughter, such as she is, and a son captain in the army. The old lady and 'Lisabeth they're down in Leavenworth now visitin' Captain Cottrell. I ain't never seen him, but I ain't got any use for them army men, 'specially them—"

"Has anybody notified them?"

"Yes, Judge Waters sent a telegram right off."

"They ought to be here to-morrow evening, then," Dr. Hall sighed, as if relieved of something that had worried him. "So they were after Major Bill, were they?"

"More than the rest of the town put together."

"Is he a real major, or a cattleman major?"

"He's a genu-wine brevet major, not one of them West Point manufactured ones. He got his title on the fightin' field time of the war. Wasn't on my side, but he's a ranks-up soldier, and a good one, I'm here to tell you."

"I'd like to know something about him, and this trouble you've got on your hands over the county seat," Dr. Hall proposed. He shifted to the edge of the bed, vacating the chair to his host.

"It won't hurt him, I guess, me buzzin' around in here? No, I didn't reckon it would. So you never heard of the war goin' on here between Simrall and Damascus over the county seat?"

"Not that I recall. There's been a good deal in the papers about county seat wars out in this part of the state the past four or five years."