William MacLeod Raine

Name: A Bad Citizen
Author: William MacLeod Raine

A Bad Citizen (1911)

Summary

“A Bad Citizen”, published in 1911, is a work by William MacLeod Raine. It explores elements such as Luke Shane, Powell and coughing.

Quotes from A Bad Citizen (William MacLeod Raine)

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ Go ahead. Kill me. It don't make any difference. They will if you don't.”
For six years society had sinned against Powell. It had hammered him from a kindly amiable youth into a bitter revengeful savage. Some hours earlier he would have killed without compunction, with a fierce delight, this man who had ruined his life. But his spirit had known a change. He saw a vision of a woman singing, her babies round her, the dewy freshness of youth still clinging to her.
Abruptly he spoke. “Gimme that rifle. Now your hat—and your coat. Hit the trail for home. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ Primeval instincts old as Eden rode him savagely.
Not till he sank down from sheer physical exhaustion did he stop. There came over him again a spasm of coughing, so long and deep it racked him to the marrow. The doctor at the penitentiary had given him a few months to live. With amazing gameness he had made his escape and dragged himself a hundred miles to have five minutes alone with Luke Shane. Through all the stress of his feeling he never let go of this. What he had come to do he must do.
He worked his way back to the trail running down to the mesa. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ The weak chin of the man in the saddle quivered. “Wes Powell.”
“Get down.”
The rider obeyed. His hands were trembling so that the weapon in them shook.
“I've come for to kill you, Luke Shane.”
The ranchman moistened his parched lips. “Don't do that, Wes. I didn't go for to testify against you. They done drove me to it.”
The burning sunken eyes of the sick man did not move from his face. “I didn't round on you. I stood the gaff. You threw me down like a coyote, sent me to that hell, robbed me of everything I had to live for. You've got to pay.” ”

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Source: Wikisource

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ A Bad Citizen
BY WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE
AS the sun went down, Powell crept out from the the mesquite where he had been lying down. He turned his face, bloodless with the prison pallor, toward the magnificent crimson glow that flooded the western sky above the notched mountain line. Six years he had hungered for it, for the smell of the desert dust and wind in his nostrils, for the look of the gaunt hills with that thin smoke-blue film upon them. This had been life to him, the breath of his being. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ He shuddered, for he knew that somewhere on the desert what had lately been a man lay with sightless eyes and stared at night's million stars—and that man might have been he. But after all Wes Powell had been a bad citizen. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ He jes' turns when he's weady.”
Powell mapped his campaign. He would go to the house and get something to eat. Then he would go on down the trail and waylay Shane in the darkness.
The youngster slipped his warm little hand into that of Powell and led the way. All his childish troubles had vanished. As he pattered down the trail his gay confidence was like a slanted sunbeam in a world all gray. The simple mind of the man was troubled. He wanted to have no compunction for the thing he was going to do. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ If they ask questions say I held you up and took the horse away before the saloon was robbed.”
Already the horses of the pursuers could be heard as they struck the shale of the steep hill. The convict plunged into the mesquite and rode for a hundred yards rapidly, then fired twice into the air.
The hunt closed upon him. Rifles cracked one after another. He cantered into an open stretch of open desert, abandoning the shelter of the thick shrubbery. Half-way across a bullet reached his heart. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William MacLeod Raine, A Bad Citizen (1911)

“ Public Opinion voiced itself in silent nods of agreement. Yes, he was a bad citizen. No doubt about that. The country was well rid of him.
A quarter of an hour later a white-faced man crept into the grove of live oaks surrounding the cabin. He moved noiselessly, but the waiting woman saw his approach. ”

William MacLeod Raine

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Quotes from A Bad Citizen (William MacLeod Raine)

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