John Galsworthy

“ In the intervals of sticking the business end of his spear into things, Kinjan had cut loose all their horses but four or five, and there was a beautiful scrimmage over those sand hillocks, men and horses all mixed, and travelling in most directions like fury. That was a vūrry tidy dodge of Torin's,—maybe it was rough on the sentry, but it was vūrry impressive—some of the impressions might have been a foot long, I should judge.' He paused; the train had stopped with a jerk at a station, and the engine was blowing off steam with a disturbing energy. ”

“ He was swinging himself into the saddle, when Kinjan drew a bead on the horse and brought the whole show to the ground. "Not so fast, ye suicidin' divil," he said, "bear ahand, Dick," and before Torin could get his balance we lugged him through the door and shut it. 'I've often regretted it since; 'twasn't a neighbourly thing to do,' said Mr Denver, thoughtfully, 'for when a man wants his release real bad, why in thunder shouldn't he have it?' He lounged back in his seat with a far-away look in his sunken eyes, and I had to jog him with questions once or twice before he took up the word again. ”

“ Torin got a piece of sail-cloth, and made himself a pinafore, which comforted him some. Kinjan slept most of the day, and when he woke up, he told us we were fools, and that what we wanted instead of mooning around for things from the sea, was to go inland and find out if there weren't any houses or cities in the vicinity; and then he rolled himself up tight in the shade of that sand-heap like a darned yellow dormouse, and went to sleep again ”

“ A man of about forty, a long figure in a sleeping suit, with a lean, brown, clean-shaven face, courteously bending forward, held towards me the lighted end of a cigar.
'Thanks very much, sir; delighted to find I'm not alone.'
'Not empty, thank God; ' said Mr Dick Denver, in an unmoved voice. ”

“ When we pulled up sharp in front of a large detached location, we could hear the guard coming, hell for leather. Kinjan explained to the chief that he had got to take us to the Sheikh right along, or he would investigate his interior. Now that old heathen was as swift a man at trapping an idea as ever I saw; he signed to us to get off our horses, and, with the end of the pistol working into the small of his back, he called out loudly in Moorish, and the gate was thrown open for us. 'Then,' said Mr Denver, flipping petulantly at his cigarette ash, 'occurred a most annoying little affair. ”

“ I judge Kinjan would have made a fine poker-player,' said Mr Denver in parentheses, with a sigh of regret.
'It was a light kind of a night, and we could see the walls around the institution from quite a way off. The old boy was heading us for the principal gate, and Kinjan turned to me: "The town's in the hands of the ribils," he said; "but, praises to the Almighty! the ould gintleman's a big pot amongst thim, and he's promised to take us to the Sheikh—or whativer his misbegotten name may be—and git us a pass and an iscort." "Bluff!" I said; "'ware snakes." "Faith! ”

“ Dick Denver's memories of that thirsty day were here too much for him; he rose and called again for drinks across the platform. When they had come, in the hands of a sleepy and coloured individual, he finished a whisky and soda at a single draught, and resumed.
'That fellow was infectious, I guess; anyway I slept until a heavy sort of feeling about my chest woke me, and I found a great hairy nigger cuss had taken me for an arm-chair. All around us in the moonlight were a lot of ferocious-looking devils in long robes and turbans, armed to the teeth. ”

“ Empty, thank heaven—no professionals from the Golden City to talk faro and rowdyism; no commercials to bombard one with down Eastern brag, the decline of Winnipeg, or the future of Vancouver and the C. P. R.; no globe-trotting sportsman to bewail his luck in the Rockies, or abuse the British Columbian for a liar. ”

“ I guess he must have had a most amazing wide-awake time in that barr'l, I never saw a man sleep so. Torin and I were most powerfully hungry and thirsty by this, so we went inland a piece and looked about us for the highest ground we could find,—the country was as blamed flat, mind you, as this prairie. We found a sand hillock that rose a bit above the rest of the ground, and Torin made a back and said "get up;" ”