live; which, bein' conceded, it'd be plenty proodent on your part
not to go doin' nothin' to change your luck.'

"'Steady thar, Dave,' says Enright, 'don't go exhibitin' your teeth to
a pore benighted furriner, an' him not onto our curves.'

"'Him bein' a furriner,' retorts Tutt, 'is but a added argyooment in
favor of him takin' heed. Speakin' for myse'f, I in partic'lar don't
want no furriner to step on my tail an' stand thar, same as if my
feelin's ain't goin' to count.'

"'Be composed, my friend,' says Mike, tryin' to follow Enright out an'
squar' himse'f with Tutt--'be composed. I reetract the "barbarians"
an' suggest a drink.'

"'That's all right, Mike,' returns Tutt, who's easy mollified; 'still
I onreservedly says ag'in that in Arizona thar's nothin' in becomin'
too difoose. All that this time lets you out, Mike, is that havin'
jest had our feed we're happ'ly lethargic. Which if you'd let fly
that crack about barbarians, an' us not fed none, some gent not
otherwise employed 'd have seized upon you as a mop-rag wharwith to
wipe up the floor.'

"Thar's allers a dispoote as to whether or no Mike reely commits
sooicide that time. Tutt an' Texas holds to the last that his light
gettin' blowed out like it does is accidental. Peets, however, insists
it's a shore-enough sooicide. Of course, Boggs goes with Peets.
Whatever's the question at bay, Boggs never fails to string his play
with the Doc's; it's Boggs's system. All you has to do to get a rise
out o' Boggs is get some opinion out o' Peets. Once the Doc declar's
himse'f, Boggs is right thar to back said declaration for his last
dollar every time.

"As sustainin' his claim of sooicide, Peets p'ints out that thar's no
gent, not a howlin' eediot complete, but knows s'fficient of giant
powder to be dead on to how it's cap'ble of bein' fired by friction.

"'Why,' he says, eloocidatin' his p'sition, 'even darkened savages is
posted as to that. I once sees a South Sea Islander, in a moose-yum
East, who sets a bunch of shavin's in a blaze by rubbin' together two
sticks. An' this yere Mike is a eddycated sharp, eddicated at a Dutch
outfit called Heidelberg. Do you-all reckon a gradyooate of sech a
sem'nary ever walks out on a cold collar, him not wise, an' performs
in the numbskull fashions as this yere Mike?'

"'That's whatever!' chimes in Boggs.

"As I tells you, any emphatic idee laid down by Peets instantly sets
Boggs to strikin' same as one of them cuckoo cloc