was sayin'," replied Mulligan, grateful that he was one schooner
ahead, anyhow, "that I can listen to a good brother like you by the hour
when I ain't thirsty. The dryness in my throat affects my hearin'. If
you blow again I'll believe in miracles. How could I help it?"

Fourteen pairs of eyes turned hopefully toward the wonder-worker. But he
said in the habitual tone of all born leaders:

"You--bums, get around! I'm going to lick hell out of Mulligan. And
after that, to show I'm boss, I'll blow again. But first the licking."

Hendrik gave his hat to Fleming to hold and began to turn up his
sleeves. But Mulligan hastily said, "I'm converted, boss!" and actually
looked pious. How he did it, nobody could tell, for he was not a
Methodist by birth or education.

"Mulligan, the union wages will be forty schooners a day." Hendrik
said, sternly. Again it was genius--that is, to talk so that men will
understand you.

"Kill the scabs!" shrieked Mulligan, and there was murder in his eyes.

Hendrik Rutgers put his right foot firmly on the second rung of the
ladder. He did it by spending seventy-five cents for the second time.
Fifteen beers.

"Everybody," he said, threateningly, "wait until the schooners are on
the bar!" thereby disappointing those who had hoped to ring in an extra
glass during the excitement. But all that Hendrik desired was to
inculcate salutary notions of discipline and obedience under
circumstances that try men's souls. He yelled:

"Damn you, step back! All of you! _Back!_"

They fell back.

The quivering line, now two feet from the beer, did not look at the
glasses full of cheer, but at the eyes full of lickings. They gazed at
him, open-mouthed; they gazed and kept on gazing, two feet from the
bar--the length of the arm from the beer!

Not obey? After that? There is no doubt of it; they are born!

"To the union! All together! _Drink!_" They did not observe that this
man was regulating even their thirst. The reason they did not notice it
was that they were so busy assuaging it.

They drank. Then they looked at Hendrik. He was a law of nature. He
shook his head. They understood his "No." It was like death. To save
their faces they began to clamor for free lunch.

"Get to hell out of here!" said the proprietor.

"Do you want your joint smashed?" asked Rutgers. He approached the man
and looked at him from across a gulf of six inches that made escape
impossible. Whatever the proprietor saw in Rut