Raymond S. Spears

Name: The Way of the Mississippi — 9. The Craven Lurks
Author: Raymond S. Spears

The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

Summary

“The Way of the Mississippi — 9. The Craven Lurks”, published in 1922, is a work by Raymond S. Spears. It explores elements such as Mad Tom, Rillard and Dona.

Quotes from The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (Raymond S. Spears)

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ Never in his life had Mad Tom had so amazing and relieving a reversal of ideas. Dona Voane had come all clear and honorable. She was shut of the motor boat up-the-banker and of that picture-making, harmless kid. He took the photographer's word, laughed, and both boats soon swung away down the river full tilt.
"All I ask now is meetin' Dona face to face, fair an' square, down some lonesome bend!" Mad Tom laughed. "Hi-i! I bet shell marry me plumb grateful—"
It was time to celebrate. He knew now that old Mississip' was meaning right by him. What more would a man ask? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ Courage walks with justified pride on a broad highway along the double barriers of hidden, skulking cravens, and each coward knows the confidence is with reason, warranted by the difference between a good man and a mean scoundrel.
Mad Tom feared the outcome, yet he pursued his intention. The pirates ran down the bank, slicked their way into Old River Mouth in a night mist, and, like cats, took their landings, separated by time and space, that chance observers might not know they had any interests in common. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ Dona had tripped past, plowing right along down with an outboard motor over the stern of the Mendova boat. The Jungle was two days behind her, and a night ahead of Mad Tom, who was dazed by the fact of the outboard motor on the shanty boat. She could beat the current in that well-shaped craft by three to five miles an hour. The Jungle was a swifter craft by far than his own launch. If the sports went night and day he was hopelessly lost astern, but knowing sports, he suspected they wouldn't run nights, being afraid of the dark in that river of questionable shadows. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ The ease with which the strong and competent man had done it was a dead weight of dread on the river rat's heart. Even thought of trickery from bushwhacking advantage made him tremble at the chance of a trip-up. The river rat shuddered as he realized that the man he hated, through sheer competence, would have an even chance against any kind of treachery. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ Certainly a river pirate asks no better friend than the river, with its night, its dark bends, its fogs and its byways. Mad Tom ran into 'Go-Lang Island Chute, where Bisko's still-boat did an all-river trade, and Bisko readily sold the pirates four jugs right out of the ground, where they had been buried better than two months. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ In their anxieties and scurrying, the pirates had missed many opportunities to liquor up. Now, with everything propitious, they opened a jugful, the aroma of which killed a fly that incautiously alighted on the top, with the cork out. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ Dona always did set a heap of store by men bein' decent. Ain't women the limit?"
Memory of his attack on Rillard was sunk deep in Mad Tom's consciousness. He was afraid, a fact that steadily made him cringe while he hated. The back of his neck still twitched and hurt where the big man's thumbing had so carelessly half paralyzed the river rat while hoisting him over the stern bumper of the concert boat, to toss him like a mongrel dog into the gray midnight eddy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Raymond S. Spears, The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (1922)

“ On the instant, thought of Rillard's fine motor boat dropped from the anxious pirate's mind. Comanche and Caprice took no part in the proceedings. They merely served the grub, cleaned the boats, and by grunts or snickers indicated their understanding of what they were told to do. ”

Raymond S. Spears

Summary

Quotes from The Way of the Mississippi — 9… (Raymond S. Spears)

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