登陆注册
15441100000020

第20章 CHAPTER FIVE(7)

Thereafter Casey Ryan hooted to the satisfaction of everybody, himself most of all.

After an indeterminate interval the four left the still, taking a bottle with them so that it might be had without delay, should they meet a snake or a hydrophobia skunk or some other venomous reptile. It was Casey who made the suggestion, and he became involved in difficulties when he attempted the word venomous.

Once started Casey was determined to pronounce the word and pronounce it correctly, because Casey Ryan never backed up when he once started. The result was a peculiar humming which accompanied his reeling progress down the drift (now so narrow that Casey scraped both shoulders frequently) to the portal.

They stopped on the flat of the dump and argued over the advisability of taking a drink apiece before going farther, as a sort of preventive. Joe told them solemnly that they couldn't afford to get drunk on the darn' stuff.-It had too hard a back-action kick, he explained, and they might forget themselves if they took too much.-It was important, Joe explained at great length, that they should not forget themselves. The boss had always impressed upon them the grim necessity of remaining sober whatever happened.

"We never HAVE got drunk," Joe reiterated, "and we can't afford t' git drunk now.-We've got t' keep level heads, snakes or no snakes."

Casey Ryan's head was level.-He wabbled up to Joe and told him so to his face, repeating the statement many times and in many forms.-He declaimed it all the way up the path to the dugout, and when they were standing outside.-Beyond all else, Casey was anxious that Joe should feel perfectly certain that he, Casey Ryan, knew what he was doing, knew what he was saying, and that his head was and always had been perr-rf'c'ly level-l-l.

"Jus' t' prove-it--I c'n kill that jack-over-there--without-no-gun!" Casey bragged bubblingly, running his words together as if they were being poured in muddy liquid from his mouth.-"B'lieve it? Think-I-can't?"

The three turned circumspectly and stared solemnly at a gray burro with a crippled front leg that had limped to the dump heap within easy throwing distance from the cabin door.-Hobbling on three legs it went nosing painfully amongst a litter of tin cans and bent paper cartons, hunting garbage.-As if conscious that it was being talked about, the burro lifted its head and eyed the four mournfully, its ears loosely flopping.

"How?" questioned Paw, waggling his beard disparagingly.-"Spit 'n 'is eye?"

"Talk 'm t' death," Hank guessed with imbecile shrewdness.

"Think-I-can't?-What'll--y'bet?"

They disputed the point with drunken insistence and mild imprecations, Hank and Paw and Joe at various times siding impartially for and against Casey.-Casey gathered the impression that none of them believed him.-They seemed to think he didn't know what he was talking about.-They even questioned the fact that his head was level.-He felt that his honor was at stake and that his reputation as a truthful man and a level-headed man was threatened.

While they wrangled, the fingers of Casey's right hand fumbled unobserved in the sling on his left, twisting together the two short lengths of fuse so that he might light both as one piece.

Even in his drunkenness Casey knew dynamite and how best to handle it.-Judgment might be dethroned, but the mechanical details of his profession were grooved deep into habit and were observed automatically and without the aid of conscious thought.

He braced himself against the dugout wall and raised his hand to the cigarette he had with some trouble rolled and lighted. A spitting splutter arose, that would have claimed the attention of the three, had they not been unanimously engaged in trying to out-talk one another upon the subject of Casey's ability to kill a burro seventy-five feet away without a gun.

Casey glanced at them cunningly, drew back his right hand and pitched something at the burro.

"Y' watch 'im!" he barked, and the three turned around to look, with no clear conception of what it was they were expected to watch.

The burro jerked its head up, then bent to sniff at the thin curl of powder smoke rising from amongst the cans.-Paw and Hank and Joe were lifted some inches from the ground with the explosion.

They came down in a hail of gravel, tin cans and fragments of burro. Casey, flattened against the wall in preparation for the blast, laughed exultantly.

Paw and Hank and Joe picked themselves up and clung together for mutual support and comfort.-They craned necks forward, goggling incredulously at what little was left of the burro and the pile of tin cans.

"'Z that a bumb?"-Paw cackled nervously at last, clawing gravel out of his uncombed beard.-"'Z got me all shuck up. Whar's that 'r bottle?"

"'Z goin' t' eat a bumb--ol' fool burro!"-Hank chortled weakly, feeling tenderly certain nicks on his cheeks where gravel had landed. "Paw, you ol' fool, you, don't hawg the hull thing --gimme a drink!"

"Casey's sure all right," came Joe's official O.K. of the performance. "Casey said 'e c'd do it--'n' Casey done it!"-He turned and slapped Casey somewhat uncertainly on the back, which toppled him against the wall again.-"Good'n on us, Casey!-Darn' good joke on us--'n' on the burro!"

Whereupon they drank to Casey solemnly, and one and all, they proclaimed that it was a VERY good joke on the burro.-A merciful joke, certainly; as you would agree had you seen the poor brute hungry and hobbling painfully, hunting scraps of food amongst the litter of tin cans.

After that, Casey wanted to sleep.-He forced admissions from the three that he, Casey Ryan, was all right and that he knew exactly what he was doing and kept a level head.-He crawled laboriously into his bunk, shoes, hat and all; and, convinced that he had defended his honor and preserved the Casey Ryan reputation untarnished, he blissfully skipped the next eighteen hours.

同类推荐
  • 东西汉演义

    东西汉演义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 金刚錍显性录

    金刚錍显性录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 新唐书

    新唐书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 冯延巳祠集评

    冯延巳祠集评

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 益州名画录

    益州名画录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 卿可奈何

    卿可奈何

    如果你不小心误入歧途,吸毒、犯罪。那么当上帝再给你一次重生的机会,熟悉却陌生的时空,模糊不清的朝代历史……你会怎样抉择?是摒弃你的善良于乱世苟安;还是坚持本心在乱世之中守护你想守护的人……李绾卿,一个寄人篱下的亡国公主,背负着复兴王朝的使命……林夏夏,一个吸毒犯罪的现代叛逆少女……当时空错乱,命运又将如何谱写?
  • 为爱成星之tfboys

    为爱成星之tfboys

    一次偶然又并非偶然的机会,让她原本平凡的人生变得不平凡,她,一个普通的粉丝,一个普通的四叶草,却对那个少年情有独钟,她深知自己对他的感情已超过一个粉丝对偶像的崇拜而是仰慕。为了他,她断然走向艺人之路,为了他,她吃尽苦头,为了他,她甘愿等待……她的等待是否能否得到他的青睐?
  • 青春路口的启示录

    青春路口的启示录

    一个悲催到极致的灵魂,转世到魔法世界最富有的家庭里。牛掰的天赋,迷倒一片人的外表绽放出一朵绝艳的花。贴在清冷小巷墙壁上的一张羊皮纸,改变了所有人的命运……神秘之门开启!身为“钥匙”的她,又该何去何从……
  • 腹黑校草专宠小恶魔

    腹黑校草专宠小恶魔

    【1v1甜文】她是圣狐,也是天帝的妹妹竺影舞,为了渡劫,被打下凡间。遇到一个霸道腹黑却宠她如命的邵轩璘,不管她是否捅破了天,他也会为她撑着。宿命之门即将开启,他执起她的手,踏进了属于他们的世界。一道幽远的声音传来:“唉,你们的未来肯定不凡且困难重重,不管如何,都是宿命,准备好了吗?”两人对视一眼,双双点了点头,“绝不放弃,也绝不从命!”
  • 増订南诏野史

    増订南诏野史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 星辰君神

    星辰君神

    世界重组,异界袭击,十六岁的少年身处异界能否阻止阴谋的发生,。
  • 洪荒帝师

    洪荒帝师

    流落偏僻下等世界的少女,怀揣神秘骨塔,自东域玄州身骑玄冥帝虎,呼啸闯入异彩纷呈的诸天仙域。众生追寻成帝仙路,洪荒老祖渴求长生不死,九天帝君留恋红尘不悔,邪佛临世欲主宰诸天。只是,见了那身披月白素衣的温软女子,都得恭恭敬敬的退避三分。她不称帝,世间无人敢问鼎,她一怒,神魔都在颤抖。举世唯一的神魔帝体,看破万古的至尊帝师。一念,风云变!一眼,诸天祭!一切的一切,都只是为了昔年那守着孤城的少年哥哥!
  • 双姝清穿记(大结局)

    双姝清穿记(大结局)

    她们俩本是一对好姐妹,在一次事故之后来到了康熙朝,一个成了康熙的敏妃,一个却成了他的十三儿媳。她,一个被认为不祥的孤儿,来到了清朝,本想按照历史的发展完成自己使命,但后宫的斗争却不容许她安稳的走完历史,何去何从,是争斗?还是忍受?她,一个活泼开朗的企业家千金,成了十三爷的嫡福晋,她是如何帮助十三阿哥走过荆棘重重的九龙夺嫡的呢?她们的出现会给历史带来变化吗?而历史真的是如书上所写的那样吗?在漫漫的历史长河中,究竟有多少真相被淹没了呢?秋秋的QQ群:66457855
  • 一个人的战斗

    一个人的战斗

    本书是单世联教授最新的一本文化批评集,从文化研究的角度切入经典作家,把握时代脉搏。内容包括对海涅、君特·格拉斯、狄更斯等的评议,对《红楼梦》、明代经贸问题等的新解。全书内容熔融知识性与趣味性于一炉,是一本适合浅阅读时代的口袋知识读本。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)