Gordon Young

“ Hales tossed the glass of whisky into the eyes of the man that stood at his right side, and as he drew his gun he pushed with his left arm at the man on his other side. A spurt of flame darted with a gun's roar from under the left shoulder of Bruce Brace, though no gun was in sight and his hands were behind him. Guns broke loose, as if at the beginning of a battle; simultaneously, from all directions, men appeared to be shooting.
Men, drinking at the bar, leaped and scrambled clear over the bar and crouched behind ”

“ Don José quickly stepped backward, making sure to be beyond the reach of hands that might grab him, and his hand settled at his right hip as he tossed aside a cigaret.
"He pushed me!" squawked Fletcher.
"You, sir, are drunk!" said a powerful voice as the shadow of a big man fell across Fletcher. "Nobody pushed you. If you can't carry your liquor like a gentleman, keep sober, sir!"
Fletcher looked up into the large and now severe face of Judge Deering, and said impertinently:
"You'd better keep out o' this, you had, old Pot-Belly!" ”

“ In so democratic a city, the Grand Khan himself, had he owned a saloon and wanted it to prosper, would have had to shake hands and stand treat; for it was here during these days that the famous but nameless Irishman declared:
"In this country, each man is as good as another, and a damn sight better!"
2 That evening Don José de Sola and Dick Hales came into the Magnolia together, but José started directly for a monte table. ”

“ Hales had learned nothing, except that men and women could live in shabby filth, be slyly wheedling with a glint of wild animal hunger showing through, and drink such poisonous stuff as fairly smoked with acid fumes, and which, when slopped on the rough tables gnawed scars in the wood. ”

“ Ye spill the blood o' man as a drunkard spills his wine, an' your souls will fry in everlastin' hell like bacon rinds in a skillet. I come out o' the wilderness cryin' a warning. Cursed shalt thou be, cursed and damned to hell everlastin'. The Lord thy God will make plagues and sores eat ye! The Lord'll make the rain of thy land powder an' dust, from heaven it will come down upon ye! The Lord'll smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore blotch that can't be healed, from the soles of thy feet to the top of thy head! ”