第3章

"'But see yere, Doc,' remonstrates the Colonel, wipin' off the water on his fore'ead, 'murder is new to me, an' I shrinks from it.

Another thing--I don't thirst to do no five or ten years at Leavenworth for downin' Huggins, an' all on account of you declinin'

whiskey chips as a honorarium for them services.'

"'It ain't no question of Leavenworth,' argues Peets; 'sech thoughts is figments.Yere's how it'll be.Huggins comes chargin' up, hungerin' for blood.You-all is r'ared back yere with that 10-gauge, all organized, an' you coldly downs him.Thar ain't no jury, an'

thar ain't no Vigilance Committee, in Arizona, who's goin' to carp at that a little bit.Besides, he's that ornery, the game law is out on Huggins an' has been for some time.As for any resk to yourse'f, personal, from Huggins; why! Colonel, you snaps your fingers tharat.

You hears Huggins on the stairs; an' you gives him both barrels the second he shows in the door.It's as plain as monte.Before Huggins can declar' himse'f, Colonel, he's yours, too dead to skin.It's sech a shore thing,' concloodes Peets, 'that, after all, since you're merely out for safety, I'd get him in the wing, an' let it go at that.Once his arm is gone, it won't be no trouble to reason with Huggins.'

"'Don't talk to me about no arms,' retorts the Colonel, still moppin' his feachers plenty desperate.'I ain't goin' to do no fancy shootin'.If Huggins shows up yere, you can put down a yellow stack on it, I'll bust him where he looks biggest.Huggins is goin' to take all the chances of this embroglio.'

"But Huggins never arrives.It's Dan Boggs who abates him an'

assoomes the pressure for the Colonel.Boggs is grateful over some compliments the Colonel pays him in the Coyote the week previous.

It's right in the midst of Huggins' prep'rations for blood that Boggs happens up on him in the Red Light.

"'See yere, Huggins,' says Boggs, as soon as ever he gets the Impressario's grievance straight in his mind, 'you-all is followin'

off the wrong wagon track.The Colonel ain't your proper prey at all; it's me.I contreebutes that piece in the Coyote about you playin' it low on Peets myse'f.'

"Huggins gazes at Boggs an' never utters a word; Boggs is too many for him.

"'Which I'm the last sport,' observes Boggs after a pause, `to put a limit on the reccreations or meddle with the picnics of any gent, but this yere voylence of yours, Huggins, has gone too far.I'm obleeged to say, tharfore, that onless you aims to furnish the painful spectacle of me bendin' a gun over your head, you had better sink into silence an' pull your freight.I'm a slow, hard team to start, Huggins,' says Boggs, 'but once I goes into the collar, I'm irresist'ble.'

"Huggins don't know much, but he knows Boggs; an' so, followin'

Boggs' remarks, Huggins ups an' ceases to clamor for the Colonel right thar.Lambs is bellig'rent compared with Huggins.The barkeep, in the interests of peace, cuts in on the play with the news that the drinks is on the house, an' with that the eepisode comes to a close.

"Now you-all has most likely begun to marvel where them labor struggles comes buttin' in.We're within ropin' distance now.It's not made cl'ar, but, as I remarks prior, I allers felt like Huggins is the bug onder the chip when them printers gets hostile that time an' leaves the agency.Huggins ain't feeble enough mental to believe for a moment Boggs writes that piece.The fact that Boggs can't even write his own name--bein' onfortunately wantin' utterly in eddication--is of itse'f enough to breed doubts.Still, I don't ondervalue Huggins none in layin' down to Boggs, that time Boggs allows he's the author.With nothin' at stake more than a fact, an'

no money up nor nothin', he shorely wouldn't be jestified in contendin' with a gent of Boggs' extravagant impulses, an' who is born with the theery that six-shooters is argyments.

"But, as I was observin', Huggins is no more misled by them bluffs of Boggs than he is likely to give up his thoughts of revenge on the Colonel.Bein' headed off from layin' for the Colonel direct--for Boggs reminds him at closin' that, havin' asserted his personal respons'bility for that piece, he'll take it as affronts if Huggins persists in goin' projectin' 'round for Colonel Sterett--thar's no doubt in my mind that Huggins goes to slyin' about, an' jumpin'

sideways at them printers on the quiet, an fillin' 'em up with nose-paint an' notions that they're wronged in equal quantities.An'

Huggins gets results.

"Which the Colonel pays off his five printers every week.It's mebby the second Saturday after the Huggins trouble, an' the Colonel is jest finished measurin' up the 'strings,' as he calls 'em, an'

disbursin' the dinero.At the finish, the head-printer stiffens up, an' the four others falls back a pace an' looks plenty hard.

"'Colonel,' says the head-printer, 'we-all sends on to the national council, wins out a charter, an' organizes ourse'fs into a union.

You're yereby notified we claims union wages, the same bein' forty-five centouse a thousand ems from now ontil further orders.'

"'Jim,' retorts the Colonel, 'what you an' your noble assistants demands at my hands, goes.From now I pays the union schedoole, the same bein' five cents a thousand ems more than former.The Coyote as yet is not self-supportin', but that shall not affect this play.Ihave so far made up deeficiencies by draw-poker, which I finds to be fairly soft an' certain in this camp, an' your su'gestions of a raise merely means that I've got to set up a leetle later in a game, an' be a trifle more remorseless on a shore hand.Wharfore I yields to your requests with pleasure, as I says prior.'