noon
If ever I git sick I 'll have some other Doc . I 'd as soon send fer a rattlesnake . '' The man glanced at the clock . `` It 's workin ' ` long to'ards noon , I 'll jest slip down to the Long Horn an ' stampede the bunch over here . '' In the dining car of the side-tracked train Alice Marcum 's glance strayed from the face of her table companion to the window . Another cavalcade of riders had swept into town and with a chorus of wild yells the crowd in the Long Horn surged out to greet them . A moment later the dismounted ones rushed to their horses , leaped into the saddles and , joined by the newcomers , dashed at top speed for perhaps thirty yards and dismounted to crowd into another saloon across whose front the word HEADQUARTERS was emblazoned in letters of flaming red .