At some point, Clanton wandered over to Camillus Fly’s boarding house, where Holliday lived with ‘Big Nose’ Kate. Doc was asleep, and Mollie Fly, the landlord’s wife, warned Kate that the well-armed Ike was skulking around outside. The alarmed Kate woke her common-law husband. Doc responded, ‘If God lets me live long enough to get my clothes on, he shall see me.’

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THE CLOUDS GATHER
Just down the street, John Clum, Tombstone’s mayor and owner of the Tombstone Epitaph, got up from his desk and went out for lunch. As he strolled out of his office, he ran into Ike Clanton on the corner of Fourth and Fremont streets. Clum had no idea that trouble was brewing, and not knowing of the irony behind it, he said: ‘Hello, Ike! Any new war?’ Oddly enough, Clanton spared him the tale he had been spreading all over town, and Clum continued a short way before running into Pima County Sheriff Charlie Shibell. As the mayor and sheriff were talking, Virgil and Morgan Earp rounded the corner onto Fourth Street with their guns drawn. They were headed toward Clanton, who hadn’t noticed them yet.

By the time he spotted the stalkers it was too late to do anything about it. Virgil grabbed Ike’s rifle from his left hand, and as Clanton reached for the six-gun in his waistband, the chief of police drew his own revolver and slammed it against Ike’s head, forcing him to his knees. Virgil then asked Clanton if he had been hunting for him. Ike said that he had, and bragged that if he had seen the lawman seconds earlier, he would have killed him.

Virgil arrested Ike for carrying guns in violation of Ordinance No. 9 and took him to Judge Albert O. Wallace’s court. The judge was away performing a wedding ceremony, so Virgil went off to find him, leaving the prisoner and the prisoner’s weapons with his brother Morgan. Soon after Virgil left, Wyatt came into the courtroom. Ike coldly informed Wyatt and Morgan, ‘I will get even with all of you for this’ and added that he ‘would make a fight’ if he had a six-shooter. Morgan’s response was quick. ‘If you want to make a fight right bad, I will give you this one,’ he said, and then offered Ike his own six-shooter. Ike jumped up, but Deputy Sheriff Rezin J. Campbell pushed him down into a chair.

Wyatt had had enough of Clanton. ‘You damned dirty cow thief, you have been threatening our lives, and I know it,’ Wyatt told him. ‘I will go anywhere on earth to fight with you, even over to [the town of] San Simon among your crowd!’ Ike didn’t back down, saying, ‘I will see you after I get through here. I only want four feet of ground to fight on.’

As Wyatt was leaving the court, he encountered Tom McLaury, who was checking on his pal Ike. ‘If you want to make a fight, I will make a fight with you anywhere,’ Tom announced. ‘All right, let’s make a fight right here,’ an angry Wyatt quickly replied. Wyatt slapped Tom’s face with his left hand and drew his six-shooter with his right, taunting the Cowboy to ‘jerk your gun and use it!’ When McLaury hesitated, Wyatt hit him on the head with his gun and marched off in the direction of Hafford’s Corner Saloon.

Virgil returned to the courtroom with Justice Wallace, who fined Ike $25 and court costs for carrying weapons in town. Clanton paid his fine but remained defiant. Virgil took Ike’s rifle and six-shooter to the Grand Hotel for his later retrieval.

A short time later, Ike’s brother Billy and Frank McLaury came into Tombstone and heard the rumors of a fight brewing. The two newcomers joined their friend Billy Allen at the Grand Hotel for a drink. Allen had heard about Wyatt’s altercation with Tom. ‘What did he hit Tom for?’ Frank asked. Allen said he didn’t know. Frank decided he would get the boys out of town to avoid further trouble. ‘We won’t drink,’ he said, and he and Billy Clanton walked out, leaving the filled glasses on the bar.

They headed down Allen Street and met up with Billy Claiborne, a young friend of the Clantons, at Dexter’s Livery Stable, where they were joined by Ike. Plans to get out of town were put on hold. As the Cowboys neared Spangenberg’s Gun Shop, they passed Wyatt Earp, who was standing outside Hafford’s smoking a cigar. Seeing Ike and the others heading for the gun shop made Wyatt curious. Frank’s horse seemed to be curious about what was going on in the gun shop, too. It had stepped onto the boardwalk and had its nose poked into the door. Wyatt came up from behind the animal to trade places. As Wyatt was placing his hand on the bit, Frank and Tom (who by now had joined his brother) came to the door, with Billy Clanton right behind with his hand on his six-shooter. ‘You’ll have to get this horse off the sidewalk,’ Wyatt told them, as though he wasn’t concerned about anything else. The Cowboys were changing cartridges into their belts. That was no crime, and George Spangenberg, according to Ike’s later account, wouldn’t sell him a gun. Still, this Cowboy visit to the gun shop had Wyatt concerned.

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