The Shooting of Dan McGrew
By Robert W. Service.
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up, in the Malemuke saloon,
The Kid that tickled the music-box, was playing a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
While watching his luck was the light of his love.
The Lady—that was known as Lou.
When out of the night which was fifty below
And into the din and the glare
There stumbled a miner, fresh from the creeks,
Dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with one foot in the grave
And scarcely the strength of a louse,
As he tilted a poke of dust on the bar
And called for the drinks for the house.
There was none could place the stranger’s face,
Though we searched ourselves for a clew;
But we drank to his health, and the last to drink,
Was Dangerous Dan McGrew.
There are men that somehow just grip your eyes
And hold them hard like a spell,
And such was he for he looked to me
Like a man who had lived in hell.
With a face most hair, and a glassy stare
Like a dog whose day is done
As he watered the green stuff in his glass
And the drops fell one by one.
Then I got to figuring who he was
And wondering what he’d do
When I turned, and there stood watching him
Was the Lady, who was known as Lou.
The stranger’s eyes wandered round the room
And seemed in a kind of a daze
Till at last that old piano fell
In the way of his wandering gaze.
The Rag-time Kid was having a drink
There was no one else on the stool
And the stranger stumbled across the room
And flopped down there like a fool.
In a buck-skin shirt that was glazed with dirt
He sat and I seen him sway
With a talon hand he clutched the keys
God, but that man could play.
Were you ever out on the great alone,
When the night was awful clear
And the icy mountains held you in
With a silence that you most could hear.
With only the howl of a timber wolf
As you camped out there in the cold
A half-dead thing in a stark dead world
Clean mad, for the muck, called gold.
While high overhead green, yellow, and red
The Northern lights swept in bars
Then you’ve a hunch what the music meant
Hunger night, and the stars.
Hunger, not of the belly kind
That’s banished with bacon and beans.
But the gnawing hunger of a lonely man
For a home, and all that it means.
For a fireside far, from the cares that are
Four walls and a roof above
But oh, so cram full of cozy joy
And crowned with a woman’s love.
A woman dearer than all the world
And true as heaven is true
God, how ghastly she looks through her rouge
The Lady, who was known as Lou.
The music almost died away, so soft
That you scarce could hear,
And you felt that your life had been looted
Of all that it once held dear.
That someone had stolen the woman you loved
And her love was a devil’s lie
And your guts were gone and the best for you
Was to crawl away and die.
’Twas the crowning glory of a heart’s dispair
And it thrilled you through and through
I guess I’ll make it a spread Misere
Said Dangerous Dan McGrew.
The music almost died away
Then oft burst like a pent-up flood
And it seemed to say, repay, repay
And your eyes went blind with blood.
And the thought came back like an ancient wrong
And it stung like a frozen lash
And the lust awoke, to kill, to kill,
And the music stopped with a flash.
The stranger turned and his eyes they burned
In a most peculiar way
In a buck-skin shirt that was glazed with dirt
He sat and I seen him sway.
Then, his lips went in in a kind of grin
And he spoke and his voice was strong
And boys, said he, you don’t know me
And none of you care a Damn.
But I want to state, and my words are straight
And I’ll bet my poke their true
That one of you is a “Hound of Hell”
And that one is Dan McGrew.
Then I ducked my head and the lights went out
And two guns blazed in the dark
Then the lights went up and a woman screamed
And two men lay stiff and stark.
Pitched on his head and pumped full of lead
Lay Dangerous Dan McGrew,
While the man from the creeks, lay crushed to the breast
Of the Lady that was known as Lou.
These are the simple facts of the case
And I guess I ought to know
They said that the stranger was crazed with hooch
And I’m not denying it’s so.
I’m not so wise as there lawyer guys
But strictly between us two
The woman that kissed him and pinched his poke
Was the Lady, that was known as Lou.
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