Such impudence to an hotel clerk!
“What then! I’ll show you what then! Now, you get out o’ here!” And he seized the inebriate’s shoulder.
Thereupon the latter arose slowly, and I supposed he was going out; but when he got straightened up, he turned defiantly on the clerk, and raised his fist as though about to strike “from the shoulder.”
“Clear out, you darn cuss!” he said, to the frightened clerk, who retreated with agility. “Don’ come layin’ yer hands onto me, or I’ll batter the nose off o’ yer face!”
“Well, you’ve got to get out of here,” said the clerk.
“You can’t put me out,” retorted the intoxicated gentleman, defiantly.
“You’ll see pretty soon,” said the clerk, who, however, kept at a safe distance. “I’m not going to allow a fellow that’s been somewhere and got full of rum to come in here and sleep it off! You got nothing to drink in this house.”
“I would if I’d ’a’ wanted it.”
“You would, eh?” The clerk now walked toward the door, and, in doing so, was obliged to pass within a few feet of the intruder; and the latter, not knowing what his intentions were, turned round slowly, as if on a pivot, so as to keep his face toward the clerk till he went out. In about three-quarters of a minute the latter returned, and exclaimed:
“What! Haven’t you gone yet?”