lk and lemonade, entire cheeses, bowls
of olives, plates of oranges and nuts. The advent of this supper was
received with a volley of applause. The musicians played a quick step.
The company threw themselves upon the food with a great scraping of
chairs and a vast rustle of muslins, tarletans, and organdies; soon
the clatter of dishes was a veritable uproar. The tables were taken by
assault. One ate whatever was nearest at hand, some even beginning with
oranges and nuts and ending with beef and chicken. At the end the paper
caps were brought on, together with the ice cream. All up and down the
tables the pulled "crackers" snapped continually like the discharge of
innumerable tiny rifles.

The caps of tissue paper were put on--"Phrygian Bonnets," "Magicians'
Caps," "Liberty Caps;" the young girls looked across the table at their
vis-a-vis with bursts of laughter and vigorous clapping of the hands.

The harness room crowd had a table to themselves, at the head of which
sat Annixter and at the foot Harran. The gun fight had sobered
Presley thoroughly. He sat by the side of Vanamee, who ate but little,
preferring rather to watch the scene with calm observation, a little
contemptuous when the uproar around the table was too boisterous,
savouring of intoxication. Osterman rolled bullets of bread and shot
them with astonishing force up and down the table, but the others--Dyke,
old Broderson, Caraher, Harran Derrick, Hooven, Cutter, Garnett of the
Ruby rancho, Keast from the ranch of the same name, Gethings of the San
Pablo, and Chattern of the Bonanza--occupied themselves with eating as
much as they could before the supper gave out. At a corner of the table,
speechless, unobserved, ignored, sat Dabney, of whom nothing was known
but his name, the silent old man who made no friends. He ate and drank
quietly, dipping his sandwich in his lemonade.

Osterman ate all the olives he could lay his hands on, a score of them,
fifty of them, a hundred of them. He touched no crumb of anything else.
Old Broderson stared at him, his jaw fallen. Osterman declared he had
once eaten a thousand on a bet. The men called each others' attention to
him. Delighted to create a sensation, Osterman persevered. The contents
of an entire bowl disappeared in his huge, reptilian slit of a mouth.
His cheeks of brownish red were extended, his bald forehead glistened.
Colics seized upon him. His stomach revolted. It was all one with him.
He was satisfied, co