half-dismal

Updated: June 1, 2025

Patterson looked at him with a half-dismal, half-welcoming smile. "Well, you are a h-ll of a fellow, ain't you?" Spencer Tucker passed his hand through his hair and lifted it from his forehead, with a gesture at once emotional and theatrical. "I am a man with a price on me!" he said bitterly. "Give me up to the sheriff, and you'll get five thousand dollars. Help me, and you'll get nothing.

Bret Harte - On the Frontier