Ike Clanton, still unarmed, beat a path from the gun shop to Doling’s Saloon to have another drink. He passed Virgil Earp on the way, but this time he had nothing to say to the town’s No. 1 law enforcer. Virgil was soon engaged in conversation with a vacationing railroad man, H.F. Sills, who reported that he had just seen four or five armed men at the O.K. Corral. One of them, according to Sills, had threatened to kill Virgil Earp and the others had responded that that they ‘would kill the whole party of Earps.’

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At about 2:30 p.m., Sheriff Behan tried to disarm the Cowboy band, telling Frank McLaury, ‘I want you to give up your arms.’ Frank refused the order. ‘As long as the people of Tombstone act so, I will not give up my arms,’ he said. As a compromise, Behan offered to take him and the other Cowboys to the safety of his office. He and Frank went to the lot next door to Fly’s boarding house, where Ike, Billy, Tom and the others were waiting. Behan assumed they would all come with him to his office, but it was too late.

THE GUNFIGHT
Virgil Earp had come to a decision — he must disarm the Cowboys. Along with his brothers Wyatt and Morgan and Doc Holliday, he was already on his way to a date with destiny. At the front door of Bauer’s meat market on Fremont Street, someone saw the Earp party and called out, ‘There they come!’ Shortly thereafter, the frantic Behan left the Clanton gang and went out to meet them. ‘For God’s sake don’t go down there or they will murder you,’ he shouted. But Virgil’s mind was made up. ‘I am going down to disarm them, Johnny,’ he said. Behan countered that he already had done so. In response to this news, Virgil moved his cane (which Holliday had given him earlier) from his left hand to his shooting hand and Wyatt put his six-shooter into his coat pocket, but the four men didn’t slow down. Behan watched them go.

Soon Ike Clanton had a full view of the forces arrayed against him — a walking nightmare that, more than anything else, had been born in response to his own relentless threats of the past day. Ike had squandered every opportunity for disengagement. The only chance of heading off violence now rested with the armed Cowboys — Frank McLaury, Billy Clanton and Tom McLaury — though to this day some contend that Tom was unarmed.

As the Earps and Holliday drew close to the lot, they could see that at least some of the Cowboys had weapons. ‘Throw up your hands,’ ordered Virgil Earp. ‘I’ve come to disarm you.’ Frank McLaury reached for his six-shooter. Wyatt and Billy Clanton went for their own revolvers. Holliday pulled a 10-gauge shotgun from underneath his coat. Virgil raised his cane, still trying in vain to halt the proceedings. After the first few shots, Ike Clanton ran up and grabbed Wyatt Earp’s left arm. ‘I could see no weapon in his hand, and thought at the time he had none,’ Wyatt said later, ‘and so I said to him, ‘The fight has commenced. Go to fighting or get away.”

It might have been the only time that day that Ike Clanton took an honest look at the situation and made a wise decision. He knew he didn’t have a chance, so he ran for his life — first into Fly’s, past Allen Street and onto Toughnut Street — leaving his two friends and younger brother to face a hail of bullets.

Frank and Tom McLaury died after the 30-second fusillade ended. Billy Clanton lingered in agony for a while, but even after the danger had passed, Ike was not there to say goodbye to his brother. He was still hiding more than a block away and was later taken into custody. In his later testimony, the man who had done more than anyone else to instigate the fight near the O.K. Corral said, ‘I did not return at all to the scene of the firing, only I passed by there eight or ten days after it was done.’

That Ike Clanton ran from the showdown leaves a clear record of his nature. In the inquest that followed, Ike would argue that the fight had all been a plot to kill him. Judge Spicer noted at the close of the hearing that Ike would have been the easiest to kill as he ran toward Wyatt unarmed. That Wyatt did not shoot him also leaves us a clear record of Wyatt’s nature.

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