A municipal feud

A municipal feud by Ernest Haycox is a Western short story written in the early 20th century. It follows a bitter rivalry between two neighboring desert towns and the doomed attempt to create civic harmony once the real instigators of the feud are unmasked. Drifters Joe Breedlove and Indigo Bowers split up near Joe’s old home ground, where Indigo wanders into Jingle Bell and, after a scuffle, helps repel a raid from rival Big Elk and leads a measured skirmish that turns the attackers back. Pursuing a flanker, Indigo discovers it is Joe, and the partners compare notes: the feud began when Big Elk took the county seat, and two rustling bosses—Sweeny of Big Elk and Gabe Wales of Jingle Bell—have kept the towns at odds to shield their crimes. With Sweeny arrested and confessing, Wales is jailed, and Joe proposes a peace banquet at a neutral ranch house with equal numbers and all guns checked at the door. Mistrust spoils the mood as each side sneaks in an extra man and trades barbs about hidden reinforcements; speeches sour into insults, a brawl erupts, shots crack from outside, and both factions scatter into the night. Left amid the wreckage, Joe finds Indigo—who sheepishly admits to a pocket pistol—and the partners ride south again, wryly conceding that human nature is hard to change.