Comrade Slivers thereupon proceeded to comport himself with a studied indifference to the cook which was duly galling. In a grim silence that all who knew him comprehended, Barney went about the table glowering with ferocity. Edging closer and closer to Slivers, the little man seemed itching in his ears to catch some careless word that might, by dint of inventiveness, be construed as a personal affront.
“I can see you ain’t got no cook in the camp,” said Slivers, loudly, to his neighbor, when Barney was directly behind his chair. “Has that pizened little boy I seen a while ago been playin’ keep-house with the grub?”
“What’s the matter with the grub, you scion of the wild-ass family?” demanded Barney, exploding like a fulminate.
Slivers looked around and scowled. “Git out, you yawping brat,” said he. “You must have been losin’ hair for years—one hair a day—for everything you don’t know about decent grub. Go look at yer head, and figure out your ignorance.”
Sensitive concerning the trackless Sahara which his pate presented, Barney clapped his hand upon it instantly. He could scarcely speak, for rage.
“You—dead lizard!” finally spurted from his safety-valve. “You mongrel viper! Low-bred ooze, disowned and outcast, I’ll spoil a grave with your carcass for this! You jelly of cowardice, meet me to-morrow for satisfaction, or I’ll swing you about by the tongue, and hurl you to pulp against the sty of a pig!”
Even Slivers somewhat gasped.
“Meet you?” he retorted, arising, to tower above his foeman like a mast. “Iron me, Johnny!—if I can crawl in the hole to find you where you’re hidin’ I’ll make you wish for hair a mile long, to stand on your head in your pitiful scare!”
“Oh, fie! Oh, bah!” said the cook, scanning the teamster’s length with ill-concealed awe. “Buzzard, you toy with languages. To-morrow I shall throw tomato-cans in scorn to build your monument.”
“All right,” answered Slivers. “To-morrow suits me, and we’ll fight it out bareback on buckin’ broncos, out in the small corral, each feller armed with a stockin’ full of rocks for a weapon.”