“Me and my pardners just got here,” said George, “and we’d like to know what Jim’s done this time.”
“Done?” shouted Phil, rendered more angry by interference. “He’s skinned Missouri Jones out of all he had, and then won his pay dump from him. Ain’t that enough?”
George eyed Phil steadily, and took his time to answer.
“Why did Missouri go against him?” he demanded. “Ain’t he old enough, and wise enough, to know that he can’t beat a wheel?”
“But the wheel’s crooked!” declared Phil, his very beard bristling with excitement.
“Humph! You don’t know that, and I don’t,” retorted George. “Until it’s proved that it is, I’ll not vote to kill a man. That’s what it amounts to. You all know it.”
There was an instant’s silence that gave way to murmurs of approval, angry protests, and argument, above which rose Phil’s voice, high and shrill, demanding the question. George fought for more time, and begged men to consider carefully before voting; but the clamor drowned him at last, and the chairman put the motion to a vote by counting hands. There was a sudden silence, portentous, as it took place, and I looked around me at the hard or cruel faces of men whose hands were uplifted in the death sign, and heard the steady, solemn voice of the chairman counting: “One—two—three⸺” and so on, up to “twenty-seven.”
When the call for those opposed came, my hand, with those of the Competents, was held high, and with restrained breath we again listened to the tally. Slowly and more slow, it approached the end, and stopped at identically the same number. Three or four men, loudest of whom was Phil Mahoney, began shouting arguments; but were silenced by the chairman, who calmly stated that for purposes of certainty he would ask for another vote. Again trying moments passed and the result was the same. Quite deliberately the chairman got to his feet on the counter, and held up his hand.
“It rests with me to cast the deciding vote,” he said, and we all leaned forward in suspense and stared at him. His face was firm, and his voice without a tremor as he spoke. He was a brave man, was that chairman, standing there, dominant, before more than half a hundred earnest men!
“Shakespeare George,” he said, “has convinced me that we are in possible danger of condemning a man who, though his business is questionable, and his character confessedly loose, may be innocent of crookedness in the cases before this meeting. I therefore cast the deciding vote against sending him out over the ice, and declare the meeting open for any further business, or a motion to adjourn.”