United States or Bulgaria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"He's got nothing on you, has he?" "Fwhat?" . . . Slavin, turning like a flash, glared sharply at him out of deep-set scowling eyes, "Fwhat?" Tonelessly, George repeated his query, Slavin's glare gradually faded. "Eyah!" he affirmed presently, "he has! . . ." came a long pause "but not as yu mane ut . . . oh! begorrah, no!"
Slavin was excited! The silence was followed by a hubbub of raised voices and a racket of overturned chairs and the scrape and thud of boots on the sanded floor. At that instant a woman in a pink calico dress, drawn by Slavin's yell, came to the door of Thompson's, and promptly screeched.
Mechanically he watched the door close; then sounding far off and indistinct, Slavin's hoarse whisper in his ear brought him down to Mother Earth again with a vengeance: "Did ye mark him stoop an' 'plant' th' 'hootch?" George nodded. "I wasn't quite wise to what he was at," he answered.
Slavin hesitated, then rushed, but Graeme stepped to meet him, and we saw Slavin's heels in the air as he fell back upon his neck and shoulders and lay still, with his toes quivering. 'Bon! yelled Baptiste. 'Bully boy! Dat's de bon stuff. Dat's larn him one good lesson. But immediately he shrieked, Gar-r-r-r-e a vous!
Geordie was struggling conscientiously to keep his promise to 'not be 'ard on the boys, and found considerable relief in remembering that he had agreed 'to leave them tae the Almichty. But the manner of leaving them was so solemnly awful, that I could not wonder that Slavin's superstitious Irish nature supplied him with supernatural terrors.
Slavin had plenty of pluck, and for a time forced the fighting, Graeme guarding easily and tapping him aggravatingly about the nose and eyes, drawing blood, but not disabling him. Gradually there came a look of fear into Slavin's eyes, and the beads stood upon his face. He had met his master.
A diminutive pine-tree, in a pot hung round with wintergreen, stood in the centre of the table. 'Well, now, this looks good; porridge, beefsteak, potatoes, toast, and marmalade. 'I hope you will enjoy it all. There was not much talk over our meal. Mr. Craig was evidently preoccupied, and as blue as his politeness would allow him. Slavin's victory weighed upon his spirits.
Slavin and his men taken utterly by surprise hesitated, as well they might; for a single attempt to draw their sidearms might easily bring inglorious death upon one or another of them. We have noted that on a previous occasion Redmond demonstrated his ability to think and act quickly. He upheld that reputation now. Like a flash he ducked behind Slavin's broad shoulders and backed into the passage.
Then Wynkoop stepped gamely to the front. "All that is true, men. I have been trying ever since to tell you, but no one would listen. Miss Spencer and I both saw the man jump from the window; there was blood on his right arm and hand. He was a misshapen creature whom neither of us ever saw before, and he disappeared on a run up that ravine. I have no doubt he was Slavin's murderer."
It was not simply that the Presbyterian blood carried with it reverence for the minister, but that he had a vivid remembrance of how, only a month ago, the minister had got him out of Mike Slavin's saloon and out of the clutches of Keefe and Slavin and their gang of bloodsuckers. Keefe started up with a curse.
Word Of The Day