Herman Cyril McNeile

“ In nine cases out of ten, blind insensate rage has the would-be murderer in its grip. He is out to kill; he is obsessed with the idea. He never even thinks of the punishment that will inevitably be his. ”

“ SCOTT was holding forth again, and after a while the stranger got up to ring the bell. He wanted a drink and he passed close to Murgatroyd's chair. And as he gave the order to the waiter Murgatroyd looked at him as one does if one's not quite certain if one knows a man.
“Surely——” began Murgatroyd tentatively.
“You're Murgatroyd, aren't you?” said the stranger. “Thought I recognized you as I came in. I'm Bulton. Don't you remember I came back through your place two years ago? You gave me some much-needed grub.”
“Of course, I remember!” cried Murgatroyd heartily. “Come and join us.” ”

“ Yes, emphatically argued Scott. Men who have received such sentences may say that it is worse than death—but words are easy. Give them the alternative, and see what their answer would be. Every one cling to life when it comes to the point. ”

“ He glanced around the group and Scott nodded.
“Fire right ahead,” he said. “And the calling is on me this time. Waiter—repeat the dose all around.”
“I guess the name of the man who told me doesn't signify,” began Bulton. “He was dying of fever when I ran across him, and I stayed with him till he pegged out. I mention that fact because he rambled a bit in his delirium, though he was perfectly lucid most of the time. But when a man rambles you either get gibberish, or very intimate truth. ”

“ Nothing would have induced them to allow Polly to marry an obscure electrical engineer. For that matter, nothing would have induced Polly to have contemplated such a ridiculous course of procedure for an instant. But Ruth was different. Ruth—well, after all, Ruth was another proposition. The poor darling couldn't expect to have very many chances, overshadowed as she was by Polly. Only one thing did her father insist on. Jack must go away, free from all distraction, until he had passed his final exams. ”

“ Polly was the prettier, though Ruth was lovely enough for any man—but there it ended. To Jack, the elder sister was so immeasurably the better girl of the two that he marveled that the men who thronged the house didn't see it, also. The family's adoration he accepted as one of those peculiar and inexplicable things which just happen and must be left at that; but that outsiders should do the same defeated him. And the only person in the household who spotted his feelings was Polly herself.
“She hated him for it with a bitter, deadly hatred. She knew that he was the only man who saw through her ”

“ He chucked everything, and went abroad. And for five years he lived a life of which the less said the better. But in one way it had its effect: up to a point he forgot. Not quite, mark you—but up to a point. And then came the war.
“Now I'm not going to weary you with what he did during that performance, since he did no more and no less than thousands of others. But there came the moment when he stopped one in the shoulder, and so the R. A. M. C. took him into their coils, finally depositing him in a base hospital near Etaples. ”

“ He wanted to find a rink instructor in a red uniform—that was all. But quite enough in all conscience for grave men who talked learnedly about mental aberrations and nerve centers and other dull things. ”

“ There was Murgatroyd the coffee man, Scott of the Police, and Jack Simpson, a gunner, all sitting in the lounge swearing between drinks. My recollection is that there wasn't much swearing. The fourth man was a tall, rather immaculate-looking fellow with fair hair and a small mustache. ”

“ Of all people in the world—a roller-skating rink instructor! At least she might have chosen a gentleman. Jack knew the fellow, had seen him in a red uniform, giving lessons once or twice when he had skated there. Good-looking in a flashy way. ”