A Municipal Feud
By Haycox, Ernest
When drifter Joe Breedlove rides into Big Elk to settle old business, his cantankerous partner Indigo Bowers wanders into the rival town of Jingle Bell — and, true to form, stumbles headlong into a feud that has been simmering for thirty years. What begins as a simple bar-room standoff quickly unravels into range war, a rustling conspiracy, and a peace banquet destined to end in flying furniture and gunsmoke. Dry-witted and sharply observed, this tale of two mismatched frontier drifters captures the absurdity of small-town pride, the limits of diplomacy, and the stubborn resilience of human nature.
Publisher: Doubleday, Page & Co. (in Short Stories Magazine)
First published: 1928