his worst enemy.

"But here she goes." He spilled a little more on the ground. Then:

"You know, Mr. Hartigan, I am wholly in sympathy with this visit of
yours, but I don't go as far as you do. I've been talking to Pat and
he's a good sport. He realizes that you put up a fine fight that other
time and that you cleaned them up single-handed. He doesn't want any
further unpleasantness, but he doesn't see what right you have to keep
him and his friends from using a moderate amount of this keg. Is that
your idea, Pat?"

"An' what's the matter with it," growled Pat. "Why shouldn't I have one
or two drinks? No man gets drunk on that."

"There you are," said Lowe, turning to Hartigan, "that's in reason. Why
not have a drink all round and then talk it over?"

Hartigan was frankly puzzled by the turn of affairs. It seemed to be an
offer of peace, after a fashion, but he could not fit Lowe into the
scheme of things. He tried to read what was going on behind the
schoolteacher's shifty eyes, but the face was a mask. At last he said:

"If these men and women," and Hartigan let his eyes travel over the
faces about him, "could have stopped with one or two drinks I wouldn't
be here now. Ye take one or two, but that is only the beginning. I know
what drink is; I've been through it all, I tell ye, and there's no
stopping if it gets the hold on ye."

"Leave it to the d--d preachers and there wouldn't be nothin' left to do
in life," said Pat with a contemptuous sneer.

"Come now," said Lowe, eager to prevent hostilities. "You wouldn't
object to liquor if nobody took too much, would you, Mr. Hartigan?"

"No," said Jim with a grim smile, "but I'm not to be taken in by the
plausibilities of the Devil. That keg is going to be emptied."

"I'm with you to the finish there," said Lowe, "but what harm is there
in filling these small glasses so"; he emptied a moderate draught into a
row of tumblers set out upon the table.

"If Pat is willing to meet you half way and see this keg emptied on the
floor, you wouldn't refuse a small drink with him in his own house,
would you?"

Hartigan hesitated. He could not convince himself that the offer was
genuine. And yet if he actually saw, with his own eyes, the keg emptied
of its contents, what trick could there be? It seemed churlish to
refuse. Suppose the offer were made in good faith, by not refusing that
which in the male code is the sign of brotherhood and equality, he might
secure an influe