ooked the part.
If either one of them had ever drawn a sober breath in twenty years he
should have sued his face for libel, and they looked as if they had been
towed behind a trolley car from the Battery to Fort George.

"Well, the ex-jaw carpenter cut loose in good form, and he soon had
every one worked up, telling the horrible things which alcohol did to
your interior lining, and giving a description of the menagerie which a
man sees when he has the jim-jams, which would have done credit to the
boss lecturer in there." He pointed with his thumb to the Arena, and the
alert waiter, taking it for a signal, refilled the glasses.

"He did it so well that he sort of had me going, and I was beginning to
think that possibly I was taking a trifle too much," continued the Press
Agent, as he sampled the fresh drink. "I was giving the matter serious
thought, when my attention was attracted by one of the panhandlers who
was nudging his partner.

"'Bill,' says he, 'tell the old man to put on full steam ahead, for I'm
backsliding and need encouragement. I'm afraid I've got 'em again. Look
there!' Bill looks down the aisle and gets uneasy, too.

"'Hank,' says he, 'I've got 'em, likewise, only that ain't my usual kind
of snake, coz he ain't got no plug hat with a red flannel band on it;
but it's me for the bromide and the simple life.'

"'It's this damn Jersey whiskey that's changed 'em,' answers Bill. 'Mine
always has gorillas ridin' 'em.' Well, I looked around and I would have
been scared myself if I hadn't recognized our own bunch of snakes, each
one of 'em with the tail of the snake in front of him in his mouth. Old
'Limber Larry'--we called him that on account of his habit of going to
sleep curled up in a true lover's knot--was in the lead, and behind him
came about half a mile of snakes.

"They were festooning themselves up the aisle, coming slow, because
there were a couple of them which could not move very fast, and when the
gait got too lively they used to bite their leaders' tails. Old Larry
was raising his head and looking around every few feet, and just when
the lecturer had reached the most thrilling part of his 'Ten Nights in a
Barroom' spiel he caught Larry's eye and the meeting adjourned, _sine
die_, right there. You couldn't see him for dust as he broke for the
nearest 'speakeasy,' and the two panhandlers were hanging on to his coat
tails.

"Just then Merritt comes in looking worried, for he had gone to sleep