"'I'll be recooperated,' continues the Colonel, sloppin' out another
drink; 'I'll be a new man when I takes hold ag'in, an' will make the
Coyote, ever the leadin' medium of the Southwest, as strong an'
invincible as four kings an' a ace.'
"It's at this p'int the five who's on the warpath comes into the Red
Light. The head-printer, lookin' apol'getic an' dejected, j'ins
Boggs an' the Colonel where they sits.
"'Colonel,' observes the head-printer, 'the chapel's had another
meetin'; an' the short an' the long is, the boys kind o' figger
they're onjust in them demands for back pay--sort o' overplays their
hands, They've decided, Colonel, that you're dead right; an' I'm
yere now to say we're sorry, an' we'll all go back an' open up an'
get the Coyote out ag'in in old-time form.'
"'Have a drink, Jim,' says the Colonel, an' his face has a cloud of
regrets onto it; 'take four fingers of this red-eye an' cheer up.
You-all assoomes too sombre a view of this contention.'
"'I'm obleeged to you, Colonel,' replies the head-printer; 'but I
don't much care to drink none before the boys. They ain't got no
bank-roll an' no credit like you has, Colonel--that's what makes
them see their errors--an' the plain trooth is they ain't had
nothin' to drink for twenty-four hours. That's why I don't take
nothin'. It would shore seem invidious for me to be settin' yere
h'istin' in my nose-paint, an' my pore comrades lookin' he'plessly
on; that's whatever! I'm too much a friend of labor to do it,
Colonel.'
"'What!' says Boggs, quite wrought up; 'do you-all mean to tell me
them onhappy sports ain't had a drink since yesterday? It's a stain
on the camp! Whoopee, barkeep! see what them gents will have; an'
keep seein' what they'll have endoorin' this conference.'
"'Jim,' says the Colonel, mighty reluctant, 'ain't you-all
abandonin' your p'sition prematoor? Thar's somethin' doo to a
principle, Jim. I'd rather looked for a continyooation of this
estrangement for a while at least. I'd shore take time to consider
it before ever I'd let this strike c'llapse.'
"'That's all right, Colonel,' says the head-printer, 'about
c'llapsin'; an' I onderstands your feelin's an' symp'thises
tharwith. But I've explained to you the financial condition of this
movement. Thar stands the boys, pourin' in the first fire-water that
has passed their lips for a day. An' you knows, Colonel, no gent,
nor set of gents, can conduct strikes to a successful issue without
whiskey.'
"'But, Jim,' pleads the Colonel, who hates to come off his vacation,
'if I fixes the Red Light say for fifteen drinks all 'round each
day, don't you reckon you can prevail on them recalcitrant printers
to put this reeconciliation off a week?'
"However, Enright, who at this p'int comes trailin' in, takes up the
head-printer's side, an' shows the Colonel it's his dooty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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