One or two minor brawls
opened the ball, and Herr Gustav, scenting battle in the air, drew from
a locker a card, which he balanced against the bottles on a shelf above
his head. It read thus:
GENTS IS REKESTED TO SHOOT
CLEAR OF THE BARR-KEP.
BROKIN GLAS MAY BE PADE FOR
AT COST PRISE.
and had been written for the German by a gentleman who had had
some experience in Forty Rod Gulch, Nevada. The action elicited a
contemptuous laugh from one or two of the new hands, but the oldsters
began shifting sundry articles which depended from their belts into
positions from which they might be handled at the shortest notice;
and the black cat, more wise than any of them, having drunk his fill,
stalked solemnly out into the security of the darkness.
The sun went down,--went out with a click, some one declared,--and,
as no twilight interposed between daylight and darkness in the country
which Big Stone Hole ornamented, Herr Gustav lit his two paraffin-lamps.
Neither boasted more than a one-inch wick, and, as their glasses were
extremely smoky, the illumination was not brilliant; but it sufficed to
show the flushed, angry faces of a couple of men standing in the centre
of the room, with all the others clustered round, watching eagerly.
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