A beautiful and sophisticated woman named Henrietta Harrison arrives in Piperock, a rough Western town, claiming to be an interpretive dancer seeking inspiration and recuperation. Her arrival causes immediate disruption among the male population, with married men abandoning their duties and propriety to court her attention, while their wives form an opposing coalition to protect their domestic interests. The narrator, Ike Harper, and his lanky, romantically susceptible partner Magpie Simpkins become central figures in the ensuing chaos. Chuck Warner, a smooth-talking cowhand, temporarily monopolizes Henrietta's company through a clever lie to the hotel owner, before being marched off to jail by the dim-witted sheriff Scenery Sims at Magpie's scheming instigation. Judge Steele and the hypocritical preacher Testament Tilton both fall under Henrietta's spell and champion her cause, proposing a church benefit performance of classical interpretive dance. A class of five men, including Magpie, Pete Gonyer, Wick Smith, Art Wheeler, and old Sam Holt, begins lessons in which they imitate spring breezes with skipping movements and melodic utterances. Ike, finding the proceedings absurd, packs his belongings and retreats to the remote camp of his eccentric friend Dirty Shirt Jones. The married women of Piperock, incensed by their husbands' infatuation, initially resist the scheme but soon reverse course entirely. They secretly invite Henrietta to teach them the Dance of the Raindrops, intending to perform alongside their husbands in various states of undress. When the men discover this development and attempt to prohibit their wives from appearing publicly in scanty costumes, Henrietta is packed onto a train and sent away before the performance can be organized. Undeterred, Magpie refuses to cancel the show. He recruits the returning Ike and Dirty Shirt, who arrive in Piperock intoxicated enough to be persuaded into costumes consisting of cowhide breeches with goat tails, calf-horn caps, and willow whistles, to play fauns in Magpie's own composition titled The Shepherd's Awakening. Four live rams have been installed backstage as atmospheric accessories. The performance collapses almost immediately into catastrophic disorder. The wives proceed with their dancing despite the objections of their outraged husbands, who storm the stage. A general brawl erupts involving the entire cast, the musicians, and ultimately the four rams, which Dirty Shirt releases into the melee. The animals charge indiscriminately through the crowd, knocking over husbands, wives, the sheriff, and the orchestra. Scenery Sims discharges his shotgun into the chandelier, extinguishing all light. The audience flees through windows. In the darkness and confusion following the riot, Mrs. Smith drags Ike home by the ankle, mistaking him for her husband Wick. The misunderstanding creates a fresh domestic dispute between the Smiths until Ike is forcibly ejected through the front door into a rose garden, where he encounters Dirty Shirt crouching motionless, having mistaken each other for sheep. The survivors reconvene in the street, including Magpie, who has been sitting on Testament Tilton in the dark believing him to be a ram. The three battered men limp home together, with Magpie reflecting that despite the chaos, Piperock has advanced itself culturally by fifty years, and that interpretive dancing has proven itself superior to anything previously witnessed in the region.
By W.C. Tuttle · First published 1925 · Genre: Western, Adventure, Humor