Johnny was relaxing and vainly trying to command his will power.
"Something's wrong; what's the matter?" he muttered sleepily.

"Guess you meant beer; you ain't used to drinking whiskey," grinned the
bartender, derisively, and watching him closely.

"I can--drink as much whiskey as--" and, muttering, Johnny slipped to
the floor.

"That wasn't whiskey!" cried Hopalong, sleepily, "that liquor was
_fixed_!" he shouted, sudden anger bracing him. "An' I'm going to fix
_you_, too!" he added, reaching for his gun, and drawing forth a wedge.
His sailor friend leaped at him, to go down like a log, and Hopalong,
seething with rage, wheeled and threw the weapon at the man behind the
bar, who also went down. The wedge, glancing from his skull, swept a row
of bottles and glasses from the shelf and, caroming, went through the
window.

In an instant Hopalong was the vortex of a mass of struggling men
and, handicapped as he was, fought valiantly, his rage for the time
neutralizing the effects of the drug. But at last, too sleepy to stand
or think, he, too, went down.

"By the Lord, that man's a fighter!" enthusiastically remarked the
leader, gently touching his swollen eye. "George must 'a' put an awful
dose in that grog."

"Lucky for us he didn't have no gun--the wedge was bad enough," groaned
a man on the floor, slowly sitting up. "Whoever swapped him that wedge
for his gun did us a good turn, all right."