down, sneakin' coyote!"
He took a long, leaping step over the things on the floor--a step in the
direction of the longshoreman. As he sprang, he shifted his tobacco quid
from one cheek to the other. "Say! I'm plumb chuck-full o' y'r
goin's-on! I'm stuffed with y'r fool pre-_form_-ances! I'm fed up t' the
neck with 'em! and _sick_ o' 'em! and right here, _and_ now, you and me
is a-goin' t' have this business O-U-T!"

"He knows how t' spell it," remarked Barber, facetiously.

"Heaven strengthen the arm o' ye!" cried the Father.

Head ducked, hands out like a boxer, One-Eye again began an advance
toward Big Tom, doing a sort of a skating step--a glide. And as he came
on, Barber threw back his head and guffawed. "Oh, haw! haw! haw! haw!
haw!" he shouted. "Y' don't mean y're goin' t' _finish_ me! Oh, haw!
haw! haw!"

"A haw-haw's aig in a hee-hee's nest!" returned One-Eye, and spat on his
hands. "Finish y' is what I aim t' do! I been waitin' _and_ waitin'!"
(The cowboy was saying more in these few minutes, almost, than he had
during all of his former visits to the flat!) "I've waited since the
first time I clapped my eye on y'! I'm the mule that waited seven years!
I been storin' up my kick! And now it's growed to a humdinger! Y've
whaled this here boy, and tied up this here girl! His face is cut, and
his back is black, and raw, and bleedin'! Wal, it's Tom Barber's turn t'
git a hidin'!--the worst hidin' a polecat ever did git! So! Where'll y'
take it? In this house, 'r outside?" The question was asked with a
final, emphatic stomp, an up-throw of the disheveled head, a spreading
outward of both gartered arms.

"That's the way t' talk!" vowed the Father. "Shure, a coward needs his
own punishment handed t' him!--Take yer whippin', Tom Barber, and take
it like a man! For it's a whippin' that's justly comin' t' ye this
mornin', as all the neighborhood'll agree!"

"Where?" One-Eye insisted, for the longshoreman had not replied to the
question. "Let's don't lose no time! I'm a-goin' t' hand y' a
con-vul-sion! That's it! A con-vul-sion! I'm goin' t' pull the last,
livin' kink outen y'! Two shakes o' a lamb's tail, and I'll show y' a
civy-lized massacree! Yip-yip-yip-_yee-ow_!"

"Goin' t' wipe me out, eh? Goin' t' put me t' bed?" Barber laid down his
pipe.

"Goin' t' ship y' t' the Hospital!" Side gliding to the stove, the
cowboy delivered up his quid.

"Hee! hee!" giggled the longshoreman. "Guess I'll jus' knock that oth