'
While the League was thus waiting, its interest centred upon Slavin,
chiefly because he represented more than any other the forces of the
enemy; and though Billy Breen stood between him and the vengeance of the
angry men who would have made short work of him and his saloon, nothing
could save him from himself, and after the funeral Slavin went to his
bar and drank whisky as he had never drunk before. But the more he drank
the fiercer and gloomier he became, and when the men drinking with him
chaffed him, he swore deeply and with such threats that they left him
alone.
It did not help Slavin either to have Nixon stride in through the crowd
drinking at his bar and give him words of warning.
'It is not your fault, Slavin,' he said in slow, cool voice, 'that you
and your precious crew didn't sent me to my death, too. You've won your
bet, but I want to say, that next time, though you are seven to one, or
ten times that, when any of you boys offer me a drink I'll take you to
mean fight, and I'll not disappoint you, and some one will be killed,'
and so saying he strode out again, leaving a mean-looking crowd of men
behind him.
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