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. 'I
allows 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.'
"'The same bein' my idee exact,' says Texas Thompson. 'Yere's
Hamilton caterin' to this camp with a dance-hall.
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