HAUFFE

Are you goin' to choke me? Let go, I tell you! You're not the host here!

MRS. WERMELSKIRCH

[From behind the bar.] What's the meaning of this? That will never do, Ludwig! You can't permit yourself to be treated that way!

FABIG

[While HENSCHEL, holding HAUFFE, is rapidly approaching the door.] You might as well let it be. There's nothin' to be done. That there man—he's like an athlete. He'll bite his teeth into the edge of a table, and he'll lift the table up for you so steady, you won't notice a glass on it shakin'. If he went an' took the notion, I tell you, we'd all be flyin' out into the street different ways!

HAUFFE has been put out, HENSCHEL returns.

HENSCHEL

[Resuming his seat amid a general silence.] He wouldn't give no rest—he's that stubborn.

FIRST FIREMAN