Then everybody yelled, and they yelled again, louder than ever, when Rainey invited them to step into the Flash Light and “likker” at his expense.
The situation at Scarlet Gulch, as set forth by Slocum and Rainey, was singular. For, if credible reports were to be believed, Buffalo Bill had departed from his traditional honor, and had not only engaged in holdups and robbery of various kinds, but had organized a band of blacklegs and cutthroats, who had become known popularly as “Buffalo Bill’s Border Ruffians.”
Who the members of this desperado organization were no one could say; but it was a fair supposition that many of them lived in Scarlet Gulch itself, and probably some of them were in the crowd before the Flash Light cheering the words of Rainey and Slocum.
As strange as anything in this situation, according to the reports, was that, when Buffalo Bill first came into that section, he had come in his customary capacity as the upholder of law and order. He had been there but a short time, however, when he was caught robbing the safe of the First National Bank, which he blew open with a stick of dynamite, getting all the money in the cash drawer. He had been seen and recognized, and after that he had been too wise to exhibit himself openly in the town; though his Border Ruffians soon began to make things warm for travelers on the surrounding trails, and had once ridden boldly, by night, into Scarlet Gulch, and robbed Payson’s hardware store, in the very busiest section.
The men who crowded to the bar of the Flash Light to accept Rainey’s invitation to “likker up” talked of these things, and threatened what they would do when Buffalo Bill was caught.
When the drinks had been served, Slocum hopped to the top of the sloppy bar, posing again oratorically, with one hand waving and the other under his coat tails.
“And now, feller citerzens,” he cried, his face beaming with joy and drink, “we’ll give three cheers for our esteemed feller citerzen, Nate Rainey—the man who is to be Judge Lynch hereafter in this young and enterprisin’ town, and is ter deal out jestice to all who deserve it, and give the rope to every man who is doin’ sich things as we know that Buffalo Bill has done. And now three cheers fer him, sizzlin’ hot an’ rip-roarin’.”
They gave the three cheers with such will and vim, and stamped the floor so hard, that several bottles were shaken from their positions behind the bar and fell crashing to the floor, the liquor running out.
Bug-eye Slocum looked longingly at that flowing liquor; but yelled in an abashed voice as he saw two or three men throw themselves flat down on the floor and begin to lick it up:
“Sam Wagner there, ain’t you ashamed o’ yerself; and ain’t you ashamed o’ yerself, Foxfire Bascomb, to be actin’ in that way, lickin’ likker frum the floor, as if you was dogs er cats, and the likker was milk?”