"Where's that mince I sent y' yisterday?" demanded Aunt Nettie, manner as brittle and as hard as glass. "It's got two fern leaves marked on the kiver."
Higginson Peabody said never a word; panting like some trapped animal, he could only look at Aunt Nettie. Then Aunt Nettie unfurled the story of his perfidy.
"An' so," said Aunt Nettie, in sour conclusion, "you allowed you'd dee-fraud us ladies of Dodge into bakin' onlimited pies for them drunkards over in Cimarron!"
Aunt Nettie made a house to house canvass and told each lady the story of their mutual wrongs. There was a scurrying round-up of shawls and shakers. Within thirty minutes fourscore pie contestants, Aunt Nettie at their angry head, were moving on the office of the _Weekly Planet_. They found the door closed and locked. Mr. Masterson, urged by Jack and realising the danger, had been before them. By advice of that tried strategist Higginson Peabody had barricaded his portals. He dragged the office counter across the locked door and then cowered behind double defences, fearing the worst.
"Never mind," said Aunt Nettie, addressing her injured sisters, "he's simply got to come out, an' we'll jest nacherally camp on his doorstep till he does." This last ferociously.
The _Weekly Planet_ was in a state of siege, and word of that beleaguerment went through Dodge like wildfire. With scared faces Mr. Wright, Mr. Masterson, Mr. Short, Mr. Trask, Mr. Kelly and others among the town's bravest spirits, gathered for conference in the Long Branch.
"What are we to do?" asked Mr. Masterson, anxiously. "I don't want to be understood as shirking a duty, but if I'd known there was to be any such feminine uprising as this I'd never been sheriff of Ford."
"I haven't," said Mr. Wright, "felt so he'pless an' unprotected since Mr. Lee's surrender."
"What be we to do?" and Mr. Kelly repeated Mr. Masterson's question. Then, as though making reply: "Whatever can we do? Thar's them ladies on the warpath, an' Aunt Nettie at their head! She's that inflexible, granite's easy to her! An' as for courage, Aunt Nettie teaches it. Thar's nothin' she's feared of on four legs or two."
"Yes thar is," interjected Cimarron Bill, who stood listening. "Which Aunt Nettie's timid of cows."