and fire these
fellows. But I don't imagine they will quit work, however surly, for
they know whiskey's no excuse. Men usually cool down after a night's
sleep."

From where they sat and since Weir had turned out his car lamps, they
could see the steady string of men emerging from the darkness of the
field and approaching the house, to quickly dissolve in the gathering
already there. In their lively steps, as well as in the eager voices
occasionally raised along the dark road, the men's desire to join in
the debauch was apparent.

With the swelling of the crowd the scraping of the fiddles became
louder, the dancing more furious, shouts and yells more frequent,
while a dense line of men passing and jamming in and out of the door
pointed only too plainly that inside the house liquor flowed. This
would be no matter of a few drinks per man, but a big drunk if not
stopped.

Martinez confirmed this opinion on his return.

"There are two barrels inside and a couple of fellows are dipping it
up in tin cups like water," said he. "They're not even troubling to
draw the stuff; the barrels have been placed on end and the heads
knocked out. It will be the biggest spree San Mateo ever saw, with
plenty of fighting after awhile. Women, you know, always start fights
during a spree."

"Those surely are not women from town," Weir exclaimed.

"Oh, no. I never saw them before. Brought in here from somewhere--Santa
Fe perhaps, El Paso more likely. You know the kind who would mix with
that crowd--tough girls. They're wearing low necks and short skirts,
red stockings and all that. You know the kind. Out of joints and dives
somewhere. There's only a dozen, but they keep circulating and dancing
with different ones. I just put my head through a window to look inside,
which is lighted by a big kerosene lamp hanging from the roof; and I
tell you, gentlemen, it made me sick the way those two fellows were
dipping up whiskey and the crowd drinking it down."

"And more men coming all the time," Weir stated.

"And more coming, yes. It will be very bad there by midnight. Vorse
and Burkhardt and Sorenson are managing the thing, of course."
Martinez lighted a cigarette and stepped into the car. "No mistake
about that, for Vorse's bartender is one of the men at the barrels.
And I imagine Judge Gordon knew this thing was coming off though he
made no mention of it."

"Since we were ignorant of the matter, he naturally wouldn't inform
us," Pollock