If it had been electricity it could not have operated more effectively.  The two awoke with one mind, and with a tremendous spluttering and cursing struggled to regain their feet.  It was no easy thing, however, for when one stood up the other slipped and in his fall involved the brother.  In the meantime it made a jest exactly suited to the mind of Elkhead, and shrieks of hysterical laughter rewarded their struggles.  Until at length they sat solemnly, back to back, easing the pressure of the iron as best they might with their hands.  Assembled Elkhead reeled about the room, drunken with laughter.  But Mac Strann went quietly back to his table and paid no attention to the scene.

There is an end to all good things, however, and finally the two brothers concerted action together, rose, and then side-stepped towards the door, dripping the mop-water at every step.  Obviously they were bound for the blacksmith’s to lose their collar; and everyone in the saloon knew that the blacksmith was not in town.

The old man who had done the hoe-down hobbled to the end of the barroom and before the table of Mac Strann made a speech to the effect that Elkhead had everything it needed except laughter, that Mac Strann had come to their assistance in that respect, and that if he, the old man, had the power, he would pension such an efficient jester and keep him permanently in the town.  To all of this Mac Strann paid not the slightest heed, but with his fleshy brow puckered considered the infinite distance.  Even the drink which Pale Annie, grateful for the averted riot, placed on the table before him, Mac Strann allowed to stand untasted.  And it was private stock!

It was at this time that Haw-Haw Langley made his way back to the table and occupied the contested seat.

“That was a bum play,” he said solemnly to Mac Strann.  “When Barry hears about what you done here to two men, d’you think that he’ll ever hit your trail?”

The other started.

“I never thought about it,” he murmured, his thick lips, as always, framing speech with difficulty.  “D’you s’pose I’d ought to go back to the Cumberland place for him?”

A yell rose at the farther end of the room.

“A wolf!  Hey!  Shoot the damn wolf!”

“You fool!” cried another.  “He ain’t skinny enough to be a wolf.  Besides, whoever heard of a tame wolf comin’ into a barroom?”

Nevertheless many a gun was held in readiness, and the men, even the most drunken, fell back to one side and allowed a free passage for the animal.  It seemed, indeed, to be a wolf, and a giant of its kind, and it slunk now with soundless step through the silence of the barroom, glancing neither to right nor to left, until it came before the table of Mac Strann.  There it halted and slunk back a little, the upper lip lifted away from the long fangs, its eyes glittered upon the face of the giant, and then it swung about and slipped out of the barroom as it had come, in utter silence.