Cutlass

“ At last a small glimmer was soon twinkling away in the darkness, and by degrees it grew larger and larger; and then out of the dense obscurity—for no moon nor stars were visible—there glided a dark towering mass, like some phantom giant talking over the deep. The drum beat to quarters, and the crew sprung eagerly to their guns. Every man was stripped to the waist, round which he had fastened a handkerchief, with another round his head, and had his cutlass ready to board or to repel boarders. ”

“ But I've still got questions. I step into the cylinder—and then where'll I be? What'll I be? Suppose I don't like it where I end up? I'm sick of the sight of space police—or any other kind of police."
"I'll place you on Earth, because you're native to it, Robbin, and have a knowledge of its history. And—I'll try to pick a time that suits a young fellow of your talents! And if you don't like it, you have only to use this—"
Cutlass fingered the small object, was fascinated as it glittered with all the blended colors of the sun despite the blue-green shadows that fell everywhere about it. ”

“ He never appears to strike hard,—only to give light taps with his blade, which flickers continually about him as he moves. Our own guides in cutlassing are not at all inconvenienced by their loads; they walk perfectly upright, never stumble, never slip, never hesitate, and do not even seem to perspire: their bare feet are prehensile. ”

“ It is no easy feat to sever with one blow a liana thick as a man's arm; the trained cutlasser does it without apparent difficulty: moreover, he cuts horizontally, so as to prevent the severed top presenting a sharp angle and proving afterwards dangerous. ”

“ I have to. Sorry to have had this vulgar domestic row during your visit, but he who hesitates is lost. I maintain peace in my family if I have to fight for it."
Right then Uncle Jared made up his mind that James R. Cutten was his favorite nephew and legitimate heir. All his life he had harbored the notion that Mr. Cutten was a milksop. He was mistaken. The man was every inch a man. He was firm as adamant. He had character and courage. He was all right.
Uncle Jared slipped his arm through Mr. Cutten's.
"James," he said, "let's go back and bury that dog-gone snake." ”

“ Oh, Lordy gracious, one way she wented, de corn was as white as snow, as light as puff, and so delicate it disgested itself in de mout.”
“You can go,” said Cutler.
“Tankee, Massa,” said Sorrow, with a mingled air of submission and fun, as much as to say, “I guess I don’t want leave for that, anyhow, but I thank you all the same as if I did,” and making a scrape of his hind-leg, he retired.
“Slick,” said Cutler, “it isn’t right to allow that nigger to swallow so much rum! How can one wonder at their degradation, when a man like you permits them to drink in that manner?” ”

“ They both started as if guiltily, and Cutler said sharply: "To hurt whom?"
"To hurt yourselves," answered the priest. "I would not add to your troubles if it weren't common justice to warn you. You've done nearly everything you could do to hang yourselves, if this actor should be acquitted. They'll be sure to subpœna me; I shall be bound to say that after the cry was heard, each of you rushed into the room in a wild state and began quarrelling about a dagger. ”

“ Cutbill and his companion were now approaching; they were fiery hot, their faces crimson, and they moved with an air of distress. Yet Cutbill made shift to sing out as he approached, pointing as he spoke, ‘Mr. Monson, there’s a ship ashore up there, sir. You get the shape of her plain round the corner.’
‘Come, lads!’ I cried, ‘sit and fall to. There’s plenty to eat here and drink to give you life. You have got well through a bitter business. Finn, do you feel equal to inspecting that object?’
‘Ay, sir,’ he answered. ‘I’m drawing my breath better. But it’s the mind, Mr. ”

“ Mrs. Isaac Cutter drew a long breath, and took the shells with a look of delighted awe. "Well, I'm sure!" she said, "you're more than kind, sir. I never thought—I do declare—Bleeding Tooth! Well, father, if that isn't something to tell the folks at home!" Mr. Isaac Cutter grunted, well pleased, and said, "That so!" several times, his vocabulary being limited.
"Again, here," the Skipper continued, with a glance around, to make sure that his audience was attentive, "again, here a curious thing, ladies and gentlemen. The Nighthawk shell, not common in any part of the world. ”

“ It is well known, the fair young girl, the brown old man, and the negro; nay, all mankind, have the same appearance, and are alike disagreeable to the eye, when the upper skin is taken away: now to conceal so disagreeable an object, and to produce that variety of complexions seen in the world, nature hath contrived a transparent skin, called the cuticula, with a lining to it of a very extraordinary kind, called the cutis; both which are so thin any little scald will make them blister and peel off. ”

“ Cutler promised to appear but he informed the sheriff that he had no funds and would probably have to make the trip in a boat or on a raft. The officer did not take the remark seriously until Cutler was lifted from the river about 6 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
The deceased had been a prominent resident of Paradise Valley for many years. The Cutler hill on the road from Gardiner to Livingston was named after the dead man. He is survived by seven sons and one daughter besides his wife. ”

“ Mr. Cutler remarked, the color deepening in his cheek as he glanced at the flashing stones in her ears; "perhaps you would be willing to dispose of them and thus relieve yourself from your present embarrassment."
"Oh, you mean sell my—my diamonds?" cried the lovely widow, with a little nervous sob, and instantly her two white hands went up to her ears, covering the blazing gems from his sight, while a painful flush leaped to her brow and lost itself beneath the soft rings of her burnished hair.
"Yes," pursued Mr. Cutler, wondering at her confusion. ”

“ While the patient was waiting to be hanged, he might as well enjoy himself within reason. Such was Cutler's frontier philosophy. We should always do what we can for the sick. At sight of Red Cloud looming in the doorway, gorgeous and grim as Fate, the game was suspended. The Indian took no notice of the white men, and walked to the bed. Toussaint clutched at his relation's fringe, but Red Cloud looked at him. Then the mongrel strain of blood told, and the half-breed poured out a chattering appeal, while Red Cloud by the bedside waited till it had spent itself. ”

“ He found it, and hurried to the little window at a second shot he heard inside. Loomis, beating the rising flame away, had seized the pistol from the shelf, and aimlessly fired into the night at Toussaint. He fired again, running to the door from the scorching heat. Cutler got round the house to save him if he could, and saw the half-breed's weapon flash, and the body pitch out across the threshold. Toussaint, gaining his horse, shot three times and missed Cutler, whom he could not clearly see; and he heard the scout's bullets sing past him as his horse bore him rushing away. ”

“ The idea that the great national hero of the hour had arrested a wrongdoer with his own hand doubtless had its weight with the police, who are not without elements of the journalist. They treated Cutler with a certain solemn attention, and pointed out that he had got a slight slash on the hand. Even as Cutler bore him back across tilted chair and table, Bruno had twisted the dagger out of his grasp and disabled him just below the wrist. ”

“ Cutler, by appointment, and with him in his coach and four horses over London Bridge to Kingston, a very pleasant journey, and at Hampton Court by nine o'clock, and in our way very good and various discourse, as he is a man, that though I think he be a knave, as the world thinks him, yet a man of great experience and worthy to be heard discourse. ”

“ You squash that despatch yonder, as effectually as if you threw the ink bottle over it. When once I get to talk with a man like you, I can't go back to the desk again. Don't you know it yourself? Haven't you felt it scores of times? The stupid man is got rid of just as readily as you throw a pebble out of your shoe; it is your clever fellow that pricks you like a nail.”
“I 'm sorry, my Lord, you should feel me so painfully,” said Cutbill, laughing, but with an expression that showed how the flattery had touched him. ”

“ The Polander Paid for his Lodging and waited in the Academy feeling sad for loneliness till Mr. Hanson came back from the Theatre and took him again to the Cutler’s; but the Sword was by no means Ready.
“’Tis strange,” cried the Governor, “that a Gentleman cannot get a Little Sword for himself in a whole Afternoon!”
“Well, sir,” said the Cutler, “pray do not be Impatient. I will send the Sword.”
They then left the shop and went towards St. Martin’s Lane; it was now Snowing and a Great Volume of Wind abroad. ”

“ The skipper ignored them.
“Dzann!” he said. “Why aren’t you wearing your armor? Put it on. The rest of you—get to your stations. You too, Mr. Wiggins. I’ll handle this.”
Still Wiggins hesitated. He started to say something.
“What are you waiting for?” Hilton said. “Tell Bruno to bring some coffee. Now beat it.” He maneuvered himself into a sitting position on his bunk. From the tail of his eye he saw Wiggins and the others go out. Dzann, the Canopian, had picked up a suit from the corner and was awkwardly getting into it.
Danvers carefully closed the door, testing the broken lock. ”

“ The boys, coming up with the horse, met Cutler, who listened to how Duster had stood still as soon as he had kicked free of his saddle, making no objection to being caught. They suggested that he would not have broken loose had he been tied with a rope; and hearing this, Cutler bit off a piece of tobacco, and told them they were quite right: a horse should never be tied by his bridle. For a savory moment the scout cuddled his secret, and turned it over like the tobacco lump under his tongue. Then he explained, and received serenely the amazement of Loomis and Kelley. ”

“ Cutten's retirement on the proceeds of his early sagacity, Marshall had adopted his sister's patronizing habit of calling Mr. Cutten "Jimmy"—"do you suppose it will take the gastric juices of that snake's interior to so work upon the shell of the egg that it will soften and permit the egg to digest?"
It was a big question. It opened up a line of scientific research, and like a falling star it dropped on James R. Cutten's inherited appetite for exact and definite knowledge bearing on subjects of no importance to the human race.
How long would it take the snake to digest the egg! ”

“ Miller and Orelle, with Llesi a bodiless awareness beside them, stood at a glass wall looking out over the plain toward Brann’s castle.
Llesi breathed softly. “I know that pattern. It’s a bad one. The thing’s brain and control and energy-source are in the bright matrix you see. Watch now.”
The lattices shifted into new geometric formations and out of the cloud rippling, soft grey tentacles thrust, thickening as they moved.
“That would be stronger than iron once it took shape,” Llesi was saying. “The pseudopod principle, of course. It will be a hard thing to fight.” ”

“ Why have no compassion for that gifted creature and generous mortal, whose worst fault was that he believed in a lord?”
“Mr. Cutbill is so sure to sympathize with himself and his own griefs that he has no need of me; and then he looks so like one that would have recuperative powers.”
“There, you 've hit it,” cried he, enthusiastically. “That 's it! that's what makes Tom Cutbill the man he is,—flectes non frangis. I hope I have it right; but I mean you may smooth him down, but you can't smash him; and it 's to tell the noble Viscount as much I 'm now on my way to Italy. ”

“ Mr. Cutler was an energetic young broker, and report said that he was rapidly amassing a fortune, and ere long would be rated rich among rich men. He was fine-looking, very genial and social in his nature, and so, of course, was a general favorite wherever he went.
His admiration for Mrs. Bently soon became the subject of remark among his acquaintances at the hotel, and they predicted that the fair and wealthy widow would soon capture the gallant and successful broker.
Six weeks spent in the attractive widow's society convinced Justin Cutler that she was as lovely in character as in person. ”

“ Dr. Cutler, a missionary at Boston, wrote to the Society in 1737 that among those he had admitted to his church were four Negro slaves.49 Endeavoring to do more than to effect nominal conversions, Doctor Johnson, while at Stratford, had catechetical lectures during the summer months of 1751, attended by many Negroes and some Indians, as well as whites, "about 70 or 80 in all." And said he: "As far as I can find, where the Dissenters have baptized 2, if not 3 or 4 Negroes or Indians, I have four or five communicants."50 Dr. ”

“ You've worked—har-har—too long under electric lights—har-har-har——" And Mr. Hackford leaned against the wall of the garage and commenced all over again. Jared Cutten stood staring at him, apparently undecided whether to fly into a rage and proclaim himself insulted, or take the whole thing as a joke.
"Yes, Marshall," said Mr. Cutten sadly. "I have worked under electric lights too long. But I worked for the Hackfords, and I was a fool to do it. This is my thanks—I——"
"The sight of you two serious-minded old nuts watching that snake would have made a cow laugh," proclaimed Marshall. ”

“ And all through a poor little joke conceived in the poor little brain of a ne'er-do-well relative.
EXCEPTING, of course, the average run of ills and minor trials to which every human being must inevitably fall heir, it would appear to those who knew him intimately that Mr. James R. Cutten's life had been singularly free from worry and annoyance. I suppose one might comb the ten largest cities of the world and fail to discover a more contented man, or a more efficient book-keeper and cashier, than James R. Cutten. ”