tiger's, the Colonel was on the drunken man. Wrenching away the weapon,
he seized the fellow by the necktie, and drawing him up to nearly his
full hight, dashed him at one throw to the other side of the room. Then
raising the revolver he coolly leveled it to fire.

But a dozen strong men were on him. The pistol was out of his hand, and
his arms were pinioned in an instant; while cries of 'Fair play, sir!'
'He's drunk!' 'Don't hit a man when he's down,' and other like
exclamations, came from all sides.

'Give _me_ fair play, you d--d North-Carolina hounds,' cried the
Colonel, struggling violently to get away, 'and I'll fight the whole
posse of you.'

'One's 'nuff for _you_, ye d--d fire-eatin' 'ristocrat,' said a long,
lean, bushy-haired, be-whiskered individual who was standing near the
counter: 'ef ye wan't ter fight, _I'll_ 'tend to yer case to onst. Let
him go, boys,' he continued as he stepped toward the Colonel, and parted
the crowd that had gathered around him: 'give him the shootin'-iron, and
let's see ef he'll take a man thet's sober.'

I saw serious trouble was impending, and stepping forward, I said to the
last speaker: 'My friend, you have no quarrel with this gentleman. He
has treated that man only as you would have done.'

'P'raps thet's so; but he's a d--d hound of a Seseshener thet's draggin'
us all to h--l; it'll do th' cuntry good to git quit of one on 'em.'

'Whatever his politics are, he's a gentleman, sir, and has done you no
harm--let me beg of you to let him alone.'