Once started Casey was determined to pronounce the word and pronounce it correctly, because Casey Ryan never backed up when he once started.

The result was a peculiar humming which accompanied his reeling progress down the drift (now so narrow that Casey scraped both shoulders frequently) to the portal.
They stopped on the flat of the dump and argued over the advisability of taking a drink apiece before going farther, as a sort of preventive.
Joe told them solemnly that they couldn't afford to get drunk on the darn' stuff.

It had too hard a back-action kick, he explained, and they might forget themselves if they took too much.

It was important, Joe explained at great length, that they should not forget themselves.
The boss had always impressed upon them the grim necessity of remaining sober whatever happened.
"We never HAVE got drunk," Joe reiterated, "and we can't afford t' git drunk now.

We've got t' keep level heads, snakes or no snakes." Casey Ryan's head was level.