“Clear out, you darn cuss!” he said, to the frightened clerk, who retreated with agility. “Don’ come layin’ yer hands onto me, or I’ll batter the nose off o’ yer face!”
“Well, you’ve got to get out of here,” said the clerk.
“You can’t put me out,” retorted the intoxicated gentleman, defiantly.
“You’ll see pretty soon,” said the clerk, who, however, kept at a safe distance. “I’m not going to allow a fellow that’s been somewhere and got full of rum to come in here and sleep it off! You got nothing to drink in _this_ house.”
“You would, eh?” The clerk now walked toward the door, and, in doing so, was obliged to pass within a few feet of the intruder; and the latter, not knowing what his intentions were, turned round slowly, as if on a pivot, so as to keep his face toward the clerk till he went out. In about three-quarters of a minute the latter returned, and exclaimed:
“No—nor aint a goin’ till I’m ready. An’, look out!” he exclaimed, as the clerk approached him again. “Don’t ye come near me, or I’ll _spilter_ ye!”
I do not know exactly what he meant by this remarkable word, as I have searched in vain for it in the lexicons of several languages; but I suppose he meant something dreadful.
The clerk, however, did not seem inclined, as yet to make any aggressive movement: he merely walked past him, as before and again the pugnacious gentleman stood on the defensive, and personated a first-class pivot. Strange as it may seem, I could not help fancying that if I had been in authority at the hotel, as the clerk was, I would not have trifled quite so long with an insolent drunken man.
While these sage thoughts were revolving in my mind, the clerk seemed to grow all at once inspired with extraordinary courage. Starting suddenly from where he stood, he walked briskly toward the intruder, saying, decidedly:
“Now walk out of here in less than a second!” And he actually laid hands on the big fellow.
The secret of the matter was that two policemen entered at that moment, having been sent for by the clerk at the time of his brief absence from the room; and that was what raised his courage so wonderfully. The two officers walked the pugnacious inebriate out, and the clerk followed him to the door, saying: