gives a yell which they hears in Red Dog. Wharupon the bobcat,
takin' it for a threatenin' deemonstration, onfolds in an answerin'
yell, an' makes a scramblin' jump at Monte's head. Shore, he don't
land none, bein' brought up short, like a roped pony. Thar he swings,
cussin' an' spittin' an' clawin', as mad as a drunken squaw, an'
begins all over to hang himse'f afresh.

"Monte?

"That victim of appetite falls to the floor as dead an' flat as a wet
December leaf.

"Actin' on them instructions, Tutt an' Texas picks Monte up an' packs
him across to Peets, who, after fussin' over him for mebby an hour,
brings him round s'fficient so he goes from one convulsion into
another, in what you-all might deescribe as an endless chain of fits.
Thar's nothin' to it; Peets is indoobitable the best equipped drug
sharp that ever breaks loose in Arizona. At that, while Monte lives,
he don't but jest. He's shore close enough at one time to kingdom come
to hear the singin'.

"For two weeks Monte's boilin' an' boundin' round in his blankets,
Texas an' Tutt, feelin' a heap reemorseful, standin' watch and watch.
It's decided that no more attempts to reform him will be made, him
bein'--accordin' to Peets--too far gone that a-way.

"'He's plumb onreform'ble,' explains Peets; 'whiskey's got to be so
much a second nacher with him, that the only way you-all could cure
him now is kill him.'

"By way of partial rep'ration for what he suffers, as soon as Monte
can ag'in move about, Enright calls a meetin' of the camp, an'
dooly commissions him 'Offishul Drunkard,' with a absoloote an'
non-reevok'ble license to go as far as he likes.

"'This yere post of offishul drunkard,' Enright explains to the
meetin', 'carries with it no money, no power, an' means only that he's
free to drink from dark to daylight an' to dark ag'in, oncriticized,
onreproved, an' onsaved. Colonel Sterett imparts to us in the last
_Daily Coyote_ how them Hindoos has their sacred cobras. Cobras not
bein' feas'ble none in Arizona, Wolfville in loo of sech accepts old
Monte. Yereafter, w'arin' the title of offishul drunkard, he takes his
place in the public regyard as Wolfville's sacred cobra.'

"When Monte learns of his elevation, his eyes fills up with gratified
pride, an' as soon as ever he's able to stand the w'ar an' t'ar, he
goes on a protracted public drunk, by way of cel'bration, while we
looks tol'rantly on.

"'Gents,' he says, 'I thanks you. Yereafter the gnawin