"It's shore too late now; I'm in, an' I can't stop.To make things more complex, as the water cuts off the tenderfoot's yell like puffin' out a candle, a little old black mule, which is my off-p'inter, loses his feet an' goes down.I pours the leather into the team the harder, an' the others soars into their collars an' drug my black p'inter with 'em; only he's onder water.Of course I allows both the black p'inter an' the Colonel's shorely due to drown a whole lot.
"We gets across, the seven other mules an' me; an' the second he's skated out on the sand on his side, the drowned mule gets up an'
sings as triumphant as I ever hears.Swimmin' onder the river don't wear on him a bit.
"Then I goes scoutin' for the Colonel, but he's vanished complete.
Nacherally, I takes him for a dead-an'-gone gent; an' figgers if some eddy or counter-current don't get him, or he don't go aground on no sand-bar, his fellow-men will fish him out some'ers between me an' New Orleans, an' plant him an' hold services over him.
"Bein' as I can't be of no use where it's a clean-sweep play like this, I dismisses the Colonel from my mind.After hobblin' an'
throwin' loose my team, I lugs out the grub-box all sorrowful an'
goes into camp.
"Which I should allers have played the Colonel for dead, if it ain't that years later he one day comes wanderin' into Wolfville.He ain't tender now; he's as hard as moss-agates, an' as worthless.
"I renews my acquaintance with him, an' he tells how he gets outen the Canadian that day; but beyond that we consoomes a drink or two together, I rather passes him up.Thar's a heap about him I don't take to.
"The Colonel lays 'round Wolfville mebby it's a week, peerin' an'
spyin' about.He says he's lookin' for an openin'.An' I reckons he is, for at the end of a week he slaps up a joint outen tent-cloth an' fence-boards, an' opens a dance-hall squar' ag'inst Jim Hamilton's which is already thar.
"This yere alone is likely to brood an' hatch trouble; but, as if takin' a straight header into Hamilton's game ain't enough, this Colonel of mine don't get no pianer; don't round-up no music of his own; but stands pat an' pulls off reels, an' quadrilles, an' green-corn dances to Hamilton's music goin' on next door.
"I'm through the Lincoln County war, an' has been romancin' about the frontier for years; but I never tracks up on no sech outrage in my life as this disgraceful Colonel openin' a hurdy-gurdy ag'in Hamilton's, an' maverickin' his music that a-way, an' dancin'
tharunto.
"It's the second night, an' Hamilton concloods he'll see about it some.He comes into the Colonel's joint, ca'm an' considerate, an'
gives it out thar's goin' to be trouble if the Colonel don't close his game or play in his own fiddlers.
"'Which if you-all don't close your game or hunt out your own music,' says Hamilton, 'I'm mighty likely to get my six-shooter an'
close it for you.'
"'See yere,' says my Colonel--which he's shore been learnin' since Iparts with him on the Canadian--'the first hold-up who comes foolin'
'round to break up a baile of mine, I'll shorely make him hard to find.What business you got fillin' up my place with your melodies?
You rolls your tunes in yere like you owns the ranch; an' then you comes curvin' over an' talks of a gun-play 'cause, instead of layin'
for you for that you disturbs my peace with them harmonies, I'm that good-nachered I yields the p'int an' dances to 'em.You-all pull your freight,' says the Colonel, 'or I'll fill you full of lead.'
"This argument of the Colonel's dazzles Hamilton to that degree he don't know whether he's got the high hand or not.He thinks a minute, an' then p'ints over to the Red Light for Enright an' Doc Peets.As he leaves the rival dance-hall, the Colonel, who's callin'
off his dances, turns to the quadrille, which is pausin pendin' the dispoote, an' shouts:
"'You bet I knows my business! Right hand to your partner; grand right an' left!'
"When Hamilton turns away they's shore makin' things rock an'
tremble; an' all to the strains of 'The Arkansaw Traveller,' which is bein' evolved next door at Hamilton's expense.
"Which somethin's goin' to pop; says Hamilton, mighty ugly to Enright an' the rest of us, as he pours a drink into his neck.'Iallows in the interests of peace that I canters over an' sees you-alls first.I ain't out to shake up Wolfville, nor give Red Dog a chance to criticise us none as a disorderly camp; but I asks you gents, as citizens an' members of the vig'lance committee, whether I'm to stand an' let this yere sharp round-up my music to hold his revels by, an' put it all over me nightly?'
"'I don't see no difference,' says Dan Boggs, 'between this convict a-stealin' of Hamilton's music, than if he goes an' stands up Old Monte an' the stage.'
