William MacLeod Raine

“ Higgins watched his victim like a hawk while the young man considered his offer. “The beauty of this proposition, Mr. Blake, is that you can swing to us without being suspected at all. Bulger tries to bribe you, and the result is that you are driven to vote with us to defeat his man. You get the credit with the people of doing the square thing. ”

“ I reckon you’re born a fool, and can’t help it. That’s your misfortune. If you had the sense of a locoed two-year-old, you would know we weren't going to vote for Simon Schaffner. But you let one thing soak into your coconut, my friend. We want to see you just once more before the election, and that is at ten-thirty to-morrow morning, with the mazuma. Now get busy minding your own business, or we'll chuck the whole affair. Vamos!”
Bulger flashed one venomous look at Kreagh, another at Blake, and stayed not on the order of his going. ”

“ He knew, too, the specious arguments they used to justify their surrender—that everybody was tarred with the same brush, and to decline would be Quixotic; that a refusal to yield could in no way affect the result ”