Ralph Stock

“ In a flash Stone had flicked the spent noose back to his hand, but Morgan saw his opportunity and made the most of it. It would take at least six seconds to open and rearrange the noose, and, during that time, he had the other at his mercy. Stone saw it, too, and, wheeling his horse, lay flat to its shoulder and galloped full tilt up the beach with Morgan's lash alternately cutting into his flesh and cracking about his ears. ”

“ The Australian would corner Stone against the mangroves, and either drive him into them or cut him to ribbons. But I had reckoned without the cunning of a descendant of Cree Indians. For perhaps five seconds, the man stood at bay, cornered, and facing and dodging a perfect hail of murderous lashes. His face was cut now, and his rope hung limply at his side, rendered temporarily useless by a biting caress from Morgan's whip, then once again he bent to his horse's shoulder, and made a dash for the open. He reached it, and, wheeling suddenly, rode straight in on the Australian. ”

“ The talk, by a circuitous route, had happened on the subject of dueling, and we of “The Wasters' Club”—a select body composed strictly of those who did nothing and were not ashamed of it, holding that life was meant to be lived, not abused—were airing our views with a freedom of speech and action only possible in the seclusion of our president's den in Guildford Street. ”