...Bob, but you got me with 'highly defensible reason for Virgil's choices;' but then, I am sure you knew you would. It's been dull around here lately so am glad to see you up and around.

I may be going over some old ground here but I think we both need a refresher course. Let's recall that in Tombstone, as in many such towns, there were few teetotalers. As saloons were the only social centers around and most men would rather spend time at hard work, hard card games, or a few hours sleeping off the night shift...that left little else to do but sit in the friendly neighborhood saloon and talk story for hours or...they could stand on the corners and watch all the girls go by!

My point being that Virgil spent as much time in the local saloons playing cards and drinking the same stuff everyone else was drinking for just as many hours. That means when Virgil went home in the mornings, he was often buzzed, and in this instance of the October 26th morning we will be talking about, after just a few short hours of sleep. my guess is he had a hang-over he wish he didn't have and that put him in a bad mood!

Let's not forget he was already not in a good frame of mind when he started out because he had to quell Doc's and his brothers' ruckus with Ike already past his bedtime. Incidentally, let's also recall that Ike was not the trigger mechanism in that situation either. Try to be a little fair for a change!

Note the other guys at the table the rest of that night were also NOT drinking lemonade and outside of Tom McLaury and possibly Behan, no one got much sleep after they left the saloon at, apparently, daybreak or around there. Hang-overs have a way of hanging over for a while.

Virgil grouchily heads off to bed, MAYBE takes time for some breakfast from an irritated wife, and barely gets settled in for a couple of hours when his deputy stops by and wakes him. Virgil says that was between nine and ten o'clock! Ouch! His head has to be hurting, he is not feeling great and so is not making good decisions, I would think.

Didn't Fonk and Murray approach Virgil and offer their back-up, along with others they could call on? If those guys were available, why would he feel he needed his brothers, two hotheads, Ike and Wyatt, who had already triggered trouble with the ranchers? Doesn't sound like Virgil had his thinking cap on, does it?

You suggest the good hearted and well motivated Virgil was also, with those spurious choices, also thinking of the importance of protecting the citizens of Tombstone! Holy Cow! Are you kidding me? Talk about forethought.

Two corrals the ranchers could have left their guns at? Why would they? They were on the way out of town. Did the City ordinance set a time limit or distance limit on those wearing guns as they prepared to leave town? Where was the sign that said 'city limits?' How fast does a guy have to run to pick up his gun at a hotel do9wn the street and then hit the town limits sign before he gets shot on the street because he didn't run fast enough?

Behan wasn't doing the job for Virgil. Behan was doing the job at hand for the county sheriff as he was already there! Perfectly legal and appropriate.