It's much simpler than that, I think.

Trail crews became close as brothers with all they had to overcome on a cattle drive, and the impression I get is that they were the nineteenth century equivalent of a biker gang, when they hit town with full pockets.

So it seems likely that he would have been in more danger from the cowboy's friends than from the law. Remember what was waiting on his return.

"off to my right I see five mounted cowboys, off to my left ride a dozen or more"

Not deputies, cowboys. Had they been deputies he might have expected that they would try to arrest him, even in those days, rather than shoot on sight.

Don T.