twelve o'clock
Employing a street urchin to lead his horse to its stable , he struck out on foot for the Flats . At the tawdry concert hall everything was as it should be , and in the brief interval before the arrival of the Poles he received inspiriting news from one of his workers . Money was flowing , buckets of it , but beyond doubt they held the longer purse . Their policy of offering high prices to the floaters at the outset had drained the disciples of the late Chuck O'Rourke before twelve o'clock , and patriots were now to be had at bargain rates . Some few conscientious souls who could not see their way to a Shelby vote had been induced to stay away from the polls altogether ; and at least a dozen irreconcilables had been laid by the heels with bad whiskey before they had done protesting that not all the powers of darkness could deter them from casting an unsullied ballot under the emblem of the Square . The Poles came hulking in , Shelby himself keeping tally at the door , and when Kiska had urged the last loiterer over the threshold , the key was turned . Drinks were sparingly circulated , and Kiska harangued the crowd briefly in Polish , hammering in Shelby 's instructions for their conduct in the voting booths , and impressing them with the fact that good cheer in plenty would await them here on their return .