The employees and hostlers of the hotel worshiped him.

A single word of inquiry revealed to him the fact that the buggy was NOT going on, but that Mr.Van Loo and Mrs.Barker WERE--on two horses, a temporary side-saddle having been constructed out of a mule's pack-tree.

At which Mr.Hamlin, with his usual audacity, walked into the bar-room, and going to the bar leaned carelessly against it.

Then turning to the lowering faces around him, he said, with a flash of his white teeth, "Well, boys, I'm calculating to leave the Divide in a few minutes to follow some friends in the buggy, and it seems to me only the square thing to stand the liquor for the crowd, without prejudice to any feeling or roughness there may be against me.

Everybody who knows me knows that I'm generally there when the band plays, and I'm pretty sure to turn up for THAT sort of thing.
So you'll just consider that I've had a good game on the Divide, and I'm reckoning it's only fair to leave a little of it behind me here, to 'sweeten the pot' until I call again.