FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71  
72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   >>  
im?" asked Clinch musingly. "What would be said agin a man that give up that sum o' money, like a chaw of tobacco, for the asking? Why, there were but three men, as far ez we kin hear, that did the job. And there were four passengers inside, armed, and the driver and express messenger on the box. Six were robbed by THREE!--they were a sweet-scented lot! Reckon they must hev felt mighty small, for I hear they got up and skedaddled from the station under the pretext of lookin' for the robbers." He laughed again, and the laugh was noisily repeated by his five companions at the other end of the room. Hale, who had forgotten that the stranger was only echoing a part of his own criticism of eight hours before, was on the point of rising with burning cheeks and angry indignation, when the lazily uplifted eye of Clinch caught his, and absolutely held him down with its paralyzing and deadly significance. Murder itself seemed to look from those cruelly quiet and remorseless gray pupils. For a moment he forgot his own rage in this glimpse of Clinch's implacable resentment; for a moment he felt a thrill of pity for the wretch who had provoked it. He remained motionless and fascinated in his chair as the lazy lids closed like a sheath over Clinch's eyes again. Rawlins, who had probably received the same glance of warning, remained equally still. "They haven't heard the last of it yet, you bet," continued the infatuated stranger. "I've got a little statement here for the newspaper," he added, drawing some papers from his pocket; "suthin' I just run off in the coach as I came along. I reckon it'll show things up in a new light. It's time there should be some change. All the cussin' that's been usually done hez been by the passengers agin the express and stage companies. I propose that the Company should do a little cussin' themselves. See? P'r'aps you don't mind my readin' it to ye? It's just spicy enough to suit them newspaper chaps." "Go on," said Colonel Clinch quietly. The man cleared his throat, with the preliminary pose of authorship, and his five friends, to whom the composition was evidently not unfamiliar, assumed anticipatory smiles. "I call it 'Prize Pusillanimous Passengers.' Sort of runs easy off the tongue, you know. "'It now appears that the success of the late stagecoach robbery near the Summit was largely due to the pusillanimity--not to use a more serious word'"--He stopped, and looked explanatorily to
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71  
72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   >>  



Top keywords:
Clinch
 

express

 

moment

 
newspaper
 
cussin
 
stranger
 

remained

 

passengers

 

things

 

companies


propose
 
change
 

received

 

glance

 

warning

 

equally

 

continued

 

infatuated

 

suthin

 

pocket


papers
 

statement

 

Company

 
drawing
 

reckon

 
tongue
 
success
 

appears

 

smiles

 

anticipatory


Passengers

 

Pusillanimous

 
stagecoach
 
stopped
 

explanatorily

 
looked
 

pusillanimity

 

robbery

 

Summit

 

largely


assumed

 

unfamiliar

 
readin
 

authorship

 
friends
 
evidently
 

composition

 

preliminary

 
throat
 

Colonel