"I know I should make the most searching inquiries about any young man whom I heard calling Veronica a dream rabbit. I don't wonder Dora is uneasy. She tells me Prudence has been seeing a great deal of Galahad recently, and goodness knows whom he may not have introduced to her. Galahad's idea of a suitable friend for an impressionable young girl might quite easily be a race-course tout or a three-card-trick man."
(from Full Moon, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)
Money is always important in the solution of Blandings impasses, but here it is ubiquitous. Not only do Bill's and Prue's problems require a fiscal solution, but the hopes of the Wedges are shaped by Tipton Plimsoll's fortune, Freddie Threepwood pursues an immense dogfood order like some Ahab hunting a mercantile Moby Dick, and in the end Lord Emsworth must literally purchase his peace of mind.
Only Galahad and his spiritual sister, the Empress, rise above the mercenary approach, the great pig responding solely to simple greed and the aging rake moved by sympathy for star-crossed love and a pure, almost ascetic devotion to creating maximum chaos.
(from the Preface to P. G. Wodehouse's Full Moon, written by D. R. Benson)
Mabry began to eject shells from his gun and to reload. Only a solitary bullet had remained in his gun. As he loaded up there was absolute silence. He was conscious then of the cottonwood leaves whispering in the cool morning air. He was conscious that his cheek stung and that otherwise he was unwounded.
Once more he had come through. How many breaks could a man get?
(from Heller With a Gun, by Louis L'Amour)
"You're borrowing trouble, King. They'd be afraid to attempt anything now.
He did not argue, yet King Mabry had that old, uneasy feeling. The whole woods out there were dark, but they did not feel empty, and the hunted man learns to trust his senses. On too many occasions they had saved his life.
(from Heller With a Gun, by Louis L'Amour)
Day after day the wagons had plodded on, and day after day the snow-covered hills fell behind, the streams were crossed, the lonely camps abandoned to the wilderness. And day after day she seemed to dwindle, to grow less. The vans were tiny things, their bright-colored sides tawdry in the stillness and snow. All was immensity where they seemed to crawl at a snail's pace into the vastness beyond belief.
(from Heller With a Gun, by Louis L'Amour)
His shoulders filled the doorway as he went out. For several minutes after he was gone nobody said anything.
"Knew him in Dodge," Williams said suddenly, "and again in Utah. He's salty."
"Has he really killed so many men?"
"He has. Killed one at Doan's store. Fellow name of Les Benham was going to cut Mabry's herd. Mabry said he wasn't."
"Did they cut it?"
"Too busy burying Les Benham."
(from Heller With a Gun, by Louis L'Amour)
"Come far?"
"No."
The hostler puffed on his pipe. He had never seen this man before and it was indiscreet to ask questions, but the hostler was a curious man - and he knew that beat-up buckskin.
He gestured. "Ain't in good shape."
"Better shape than the man who rode him."
Griffin, the hostler remembered, was considered a very salty customer in some circles. He must have cut himself into the wrong circle.
(from Heller With a Gun, by Louis L'Amour)
