They were all there.

The men from the Porcupine and from beyond the Fort, the Police with the Inspector in command, all the farmers for twenty miles around, and of course all the ranchers and cowboys of the Swan Creek country.

There was no effort at repression.
There was no need, for in the cowboys, for the first time in their experience, there was no heart for fun.

And as they rode up and hitched their horses to the fence, or drove their sleighs into the yard and took off the bells, there was no loud-voiced salutation, no guying nor chaffing, but with silent nod they took their places in the crowd about the door or passed into the kitchen.
The men from the Porcupine could not quite understand the gloomy silence.

It was something unprecedented in a country where men laughed all care to scorn and saluted death with a nod.