According to Earp’s possibly embellished account, he watched Rayner closely as he approached. At one point Rayner drew his gloves through his hand, slapped his palm with them, and said, I suppose you know that when a Southern gentleman goes hunting trouble, he likes to take his gloves along? He sometimes find them useful.

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The kind of trouble you’re heading into right now, Rayner, can’t be handled with gloves, said Earp.

Rayner paused, then invited Earp to have a drink with hits. The two proceeded to the bar, where Rayner suggested they place their weapons on the bar. He did so, but Earp remarked that he didn’t carry a gun, and opened his coat to prove the point. In that case, Rayner remarked, I ought to buy wine. After finishing off his wine, Rayner picked up his pistol, left Earp at the bar, and proceeded into the gaming room.

If any of this happened — and it all may have been the fantasy of Wyatt Earp since there is no corroborating evidence other than the fact that Earp was there that night — Rayner soon shifted his attention to other prey. Wyatt, joined by his friend Dan Tipton, the Nevada gunman who had been with Wyatt in Tombstone and was now working with the U.S. Customs Service in El Paso, followed Rayner into the gaming room in time to witness the next act of the drama.

Robert Bates Cowboy Bob Rennick was a stranger in El Paso, but he was no stranger to trouble. A quiet man without any brag in him, he was nevertheless a truly dangerous man, with no need to prove himself to any one. He had a quick temper and was well acquainted with guns. A muscular man of medium height and florid complexion, he brought a reputation as a hard case to town with him. George Look described him as a very hard character, really one of the hardest desperadoes in this country at the time, but little known here. That evening, however, he looked the part of a cowboy in his broadbrimmed white hat, as he sat at the faro layout of a dealer named Robert Cahill. Unarmed and unassuming, he was minding his own business when Rayner approached the table.

Apparently, the conspicuous display of Rennick’s white hat drew Rayner to him. The room was crowded when Rayner stepped up behind Rennick and began to thump the brim of the stranger’s hat with his fingers. Are you a fighter? Rayner mocked.

Rennick shifted in his seat and turned toward Rayner. No, he said evenly. I am no fighter, and I want no trouble.

You look like a fighter. You have a white hat on, Rayner persisted. What are you so pale about? You look like a fighter.

At that point, A.P. Criswell, who ran the gambling concession at the Gem, stepped up to Rayner and asked him to stop harassing Rennick.

Am I wrong? Rayner queried.

Criswell responded in the affirmative and again urged him to cease plaguing the stranger. At that point, Rayner held out his hand to Rennick, shook hands with him, and said, 1 apologize.

For an instant, it seemed the confrontation was over. Some of Rayner’s friends — but not his drunk friend Linn, the jailer — tried to lead him away, but he would not leave. He kept saying over and over again that Rennick was a fighter and that he would have to kill him. Finally, he pulled away and confronted Rennick again. Cahill, the dealer, left his layout long enough to pull Linn to the door of the theater, explaining later that he wished to get Linn away from Rayner in order that I might get Rayner home.

As Rayner kept up the barrage of insults, Rennick continued to say that he was not a fighter. The tension was strong, and Cahill, having succeeded in separating Linn from Rayner, moved quickly to Rayner’s side and pulled him toward the bar, which was separated from the gaming room by large screens with archways and swinging doors. One of the doors was open, the other closed. Rayner tried to get Cahill to turn him loose, but the young dealer manhandled him out of the room with the assistance of others, pushing him through the open door as far as the first pool table in the bar.

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