Rex Beach

“ Mike comes forth, chin down, shoulder up, left foot straight, all in perfect position and aggressive as a grizzly, while the home product hangs his arms loose and sways back and forrad, lookin' at Mike's feet like it is milkin' time and he is afraid of bein' kicked. Then, of a sudden he makes a motion with one glove like he is flaggin' a train. Mike parries and turns loose an upper cut for the farmer's kitchen that would have broke every dish in his pantry, but somehow the man happens to be out when it arrives, and can't receive it in person. ”

“ Me and Balaam is goin' East. If you're broke, too, I'll let you ride on my ticket—he's good fer a carload.'
"'We are quitting the West ourselves,' says I, tappin' my wish-bone with dignity, for I feels the bank roll agin my ribs and am filled with figgers of speech.
"'"We,'" repeats Mike, inquisitive and suspicious. 'You say "we" like you had money. I seen it in a book oncet that only three people is licensed to say "we,"—kings, editors, and men with tapeworms. I add to it a man with great wealth. ”

“ This one is carryin' a pack, and there's a man with him. The feller yanks off the pack-saddle, throws it in the car, then hists Mr. Balaam in and clambers aboard himself. When I get a square look at him, I reco'nize my old friend Mojave Mike Butters, the foot-racer. He's sure a baleful and horrible sight, all poverty-stricken and destitute, but I don't say nothin', just hitch back into the gloom and snore, while he puts his blankets in the other end of the car, leads the animal over, and sets down. ”

“ Brakeman is some wrathy, but Mike don't move only to reach out an' get Balaam by the halter. The brute is still eatin' succulent bunches of excelsior, dreamy and amiable, while peace and friendship look out of his brown eyes, and his tail swishes with content. All is sunshine for Balaam.
"'Out you go, you blamed hobo,' says the railroad man, makin' for Mike.
"'Look out! There ain't goin' to be doors enough in the car for you,' says Mike ”

“ They couldn't get enough of it; four ounces for four bits—ridic'lous cheap, too, when you consider that it stood us eight dollars an ounce in Topeka. That is, the real stuff that the coons carried around did, but of course the four-ounce bottles wasn't quite so precious, bein' as we filled them with filtered water and soaked the corks in real cologne durin' the afternoons when we wasn't busy. Yes, sir. They sure did like the smell of them corked-up water bottles, and we was doin' well.
"'Quick sales and small profits, is our motto,' says Mike. ”

“ They cost us fourteen a week.
"Well, after the music, the Mexikin desperado gives exhibitions of throwing the bowie and pistol practice, after which we have more music, and Mike does 'marvelous, mystifyin' feats of sleight of hand, too bafflin' for the mind, and too rapid for the eye.' Then we have some buck an' wingin' by the African team, after which Mike addresses the pacified and radiant hay-diggers as follows:
'"No doubt, ladies and gents, you have been delighted by our educational entertainment, but to give fleetin' pleasure ain't our only mission. We have a higher motive. ”

“ I see the head of a burro lookin' in the car door, inquirin' and sleepy. Somehow, I allus want to laugh when I look a burro in the face, he's that simple and unassumin' and 'Have-you-used-Pear's-soap?' lookin', but I don't do it, because I know he's got me sized up, proper, and has divined all my weaknesses and secret faults and is criticizing me from my number twelve feet to my number six hat. ”

“ I stand around for a few minutes actin' queer, twitchin' my muscles and lickin' my lips, nervous, till I see that the whole room has spotted my dishybilly, then I edges over to the galaxy at the faro table where my dyspeptic crook is takin' good money away from some punchers. ”

“ There ain't even been a sheep-herder or a chink massacreed since old man Stubbs had the treemors, and now that he's took the cure, the future looks dark and unengaging. There's nothin' but them mercenary gamblin' games.'
"I nosed around for an hour, but I never see such a stupefied camp, and, bein' that bulged out with hunger for emergencies, I am forced agin the green cloth to save my mental balance.
"'What's the limit to this snare?' I asks of the invalid in the operating chair, having found the lay-out. ”

“ He shifts his feet at the right instant, and is an inch out of range. Mike drives up with another assortment of wallops, but the Rube isn't there to sign for 'em. The lamplight grew muddy with Mike's blows, when all at once Mr. ”