United States or Peru ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The judges examined the saddle carefully for copper stitching, looked at the butt end of the whip, ran their hands over Calamity's thin loins and last of all felt in his bootlegs for wires connected with the spurs. All this time Jockey Gillis might have been posing as a statue of outraged innocence. "Nothing on him," said the presiding judge shortly. "Hang up the official."
And all the while, Wayland sat crunched in the chair of the Cabin, gazing and gazing at the face in the picture above "the Happy Warrior," till the light faded from the Holy Cross and the moon beams struck aslant the timbered floor, and Calamity's shadow stood in the doorway with a basket on her arm. "Meesis Villiam send up y' supper," she said. Wayland ate mechanically.
"Kilrain," called Drew, "you're Calamity's best friend. Ride for Eldara and bring back Dr. Young. Quick! We're going to pull Ben through." "Jest a waste of time," said Nash coolly. "He's got one foot in hell already." "You've said too much, Nash. Kilrain, are you going?" "I'll stop for the doctor at Eldara, but then I'll keep on riding." "What do you mean?" "Nothin'."
And Eleanor being a true descendant of the Man with the Iron Hand flaunted personal fear; and went back to a sleepless but not unhappy night in her room. Why did the news that Calamity's child had died bring such a sense of relief? How simply does life deck out her tragedies! There is no prelude of low-toned plaintive orchestral music tuned to expectancy.
Little Calamity's face was thinner than ever, there were hollows under his wandering eyes, and in them the anxious, wistful look of a half-starved cur which has found a bone and fears that it will be taken away from him. It occurred to the Kid that even a rat like Gillis might have feelings such feelings as may be touched by hunger and physical discomfort.
Any school boy could have trolled off yards of the same drivelling cleverness; and Eleanor's innocent telephone call was, of course, lugged in. There followed a garbled account of poor Calamity's errant days among the miners of the Black Hills.
Word Of The Day