"Is that all you have left?"
Charlie scratched his ear reflectively.
"Well, you see, I've had a good deal of toothache lately," he announced. "And as soon as Doc Simpson and Hatch found out about it, they begin to complain about their teeth achin' too. Seemed to be a sort of epidemic of toothache, Court. Nothing like whiskey for the toothache, you know."
"But Simpson is a dentist. Why don't you have him treat your teeth?"
"Seems as though he'd sooner have me treat his," said Charlie, with a slight grimace. Rummaging about in the top tray of the trunk, he produced a couple of bar glasses, which he carefully rinsed at the washstand. "Tastes better when you drink it out of a regular glass," he explained. "Always seems sort of cowardly to me to take it with water,—almost as if you were trying to drown it so's it won't be able to bite back when you tackle it. Needn't mind sayin' 'when' The glass holds just so much, and I know enough to stop when it begins to run over. Well! Here's hoping your toothache will be better in the morning, Court."
"I don't think I ought to rob you like this, Charlie,—"
"Lord, man, you're not robbing me. If you're robbing anybody, it's Doc Simpson,—and he's been absolutely free from toothache ever since I told him this room was dry. Excuse me a second, Court. I always propose a toast before I take a drink up here. Here's to Miss Alix Crown, the finest girl in the U. S. A., and the best boss a man ever had. Course I've never said that in a saloon, but up here it's different,—and kind of sacred."
"I usually make a wry face when I drink it neat like this," said Courtney.
"You'll like her just as well as I do when you get to know her, boy. I've known her since she was a little kid,—long before she was sent abroad,—and she's the salt of the earth. That's one thing on which Doc and Hatch and me always agree. We differ on most everything else, but—well, as I was saying, you wait till you get to know her."
He tossed off the whiskey in one prodigious gulp, smacked his lips, and then stood watching his guest drink his.