The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Night-Born, by Jack London

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Title: The Night-Born

Author: Jack London

Last Updated: January 3, 2009
Posting Date: August 2, 2008 [EBook #1029]
Release Date: September, 1997

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NIGHT-BORN ***

Produced by J.R. Wright

THE NIGHT-BORN

By Jack London

CONTENTS:

THE NIGHT-BORN
THE MADNESS OF JOHN HARNED
WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG
THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
WINGED BLACKMAIL
BUNCHES OF KNUCKLES
WAR
UNDER THE DECK AWNINGS
TO KILL A MAN
THE MEXICAN

THE NIGHT-BORN

It was in the old Alta-Inyo Club--a warm night for San Francisco--and
through the open windows, hushed and far, came the brawl of the streets.
The talk had led on from the Graft Prosecution and the latest signs
that the town was to be run wide open, down through all the grotesque
sordidness and rottenness of man-hate and man-meanness, until the name
of O'Brien was mentioned--O'Brien, the promising young pugilist who
had been killed in the prize-ring the night before. At once the air
had seemed to freshen. O'Brien had been a clean-living young man with
ideals. He neither drank, smoked, nor swore, and his had been the body
of a beautiful young god. He had even carried his prayer-book to the
ringside. They found it in his coat pocket in the dressing-room...
afterward.

Here was Youth, clean and wholesome, unsullied--the thing of glory and
wonder for men to conjure with..... after it has been lost to them and
they have turned middle-aged. And so well did we conjure, that Romance
came and for an hour led us far from the man-city and its snarling roar.
Bardwell, in a way, started it by quoting from Thoreau; but it was old
Trefethan, bald-headed and dewlapped, who took up the quotation and for
the hour to come was romance incarnate. At first we wondered how many
Scotches he had consumed since dinner, but very soon all that was
forgotten.

"It was in 1898--I was thirty-five then," he said. "Yes, I know you are
adding it up. You're right. I'm forty-seven now; look ten years more;
and the doctors say--