"Doesn't mind it!" shouted Horner. "Confound him! He always manages to turn the tables in some way, and hazes the parties who try to haze him."
"Hey, Browning! Hello, King! Come join us. You, too, Emery"--to the other fellow. "What'll you have, Browning?"
Browning accepted a seat at the table, but waved his hand languidly as he declined to drink.
"Oh, but you must! Have some ale, old man."
"Excuse me, gentlemen. I tell you squarely that I am not taking anything just now. By and by I will be with you again. Emery will go you one. That's what he came in for."
"That's right," declared Browning's companion. "I was out stargazing last night. Looked at the Long-Handled Dipper a long time, and it gave me an awful thirst. I've had it with me all day. Yes, mine's ale."
So another round was ordered. Horner passed around the cigarettes, and Browning declined them. The others lighted up fresh ones.
"Say," broke out Emery, suddenly, "do you know that fresh Ditson gives me that tired feeling?"
"He's no good," said Tad. "He is crooked and he's a toucher. Touched me for a V once, and I am looking for that fiver yet. That was two years ago, before I came here. I knew him then."
"He tried to touch us for a drink as we came along," said Browning. "I took him in here once, but I've been sorry ever since. He said he had his thirst with him just now. I told him to go sit on the fence and let the wind blow him off."
"And he is a big bluff," asserted Emery. "The other day he was telling how he once sat at the table with kings and queens. I told him that I had--and with jacks and ten spots. Here comes the amber. My! I won't do a thing to it!"
The waiter placed the glasses of ale before them, and Emery eagerly grasped his.
"Here's more to-morrow," was his toast, and he seemed to toss it off at a single swallow.
"By Jawve!" drawled Paulding. "You must be thirsty!"
"I am. Have been all day, as I said before. It was hard stuff last night, and we went the rounds. My head needed hooping when I arose from my downy couch this morning."
"Well, you shouldn't have gotten intoxicated, in the first place," said Parker.
"I didn't. It was in the last place. If I'd gone home before we struck that joint I'd been all right."