drunker than you look? You-all know he 's just got back from his
wedding trip."

"But he 's back, all right, ain't he! Neither one of us has ever got
into a hole yet that Emerson did n't come a-runnin', and fixed for
whatever might happen. And he's never needed us that we did n't get
there as quick as we could. You-all don't reckon, Tom, that Emerson
Mead's liver 's turned white just because he 's got a wife!"

Tom Tuttle fidgeted his big bulk and cleared his throat. Words did not
come so easily to him as deeds, but Ellhorn's way of putting it made
explanation necessary. "I don't mean it that way, Tom. Once, last
year, down in Plumas, when Emerson would n't let us shoot into that
crowd that wanted to hang him, I wondered for just a second if he was
afraid, and it made me plumb sick. But I saw right away that it was
just Emerson's judgment that there ought n't to be any shootin' right
then, and he was plumb right about it. No, Tom, I sure reckon there
ain't a drop of blood in Emerson's veins that would n't be ready for a
fight any minute, if 't was his judgment that there ought to be a
fight, even if he has got married. But we-all must remember that he 's
got a wife now, and can't cut out from his family and go rushin' round
the country like a steer on the prod every time you get drunk and raise
hell, or every time I need help. We 'll have to pull together after
this, Tom, and leave Emerson out. It would be too much like stackin'
the cards against Mrs. Emerson if we didn't."

As Tuttle ended he saw a gleam in the other's eyes that caused him to
add with emphasis, "And I 'm not goin' to call him up here, and don't
you do it, either!"