Nice aftershave

     The Shoo-Fly was crowded when I came in, but I turned some heads. I don't know if it was the gun battle the night before or the whisky I'd used for shave lotion, but they looked me over some.

(from The Lonely Men, by Louis L'Amour)

A mean woman

     We were a mite out of town among some rocks and mesquite, and we'd been there a while when I heard somebody singing "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie," and Rocca pushed his hat back off his eyes. "Don't shoot," he said, grinning at me. "That's John J."

    And it was. Battles came up through the brush and looked us over, and we told him what the score was.

    "Where's Spanish?" he wanted to know, and Rocca told him.

    "He found himself a gal down yonder. Her name is Conchita, and if she gets mad at him the Apaches will be a relief."

(from The Lonely Men, by Louis L'Amour)

No squeaks

     What I wanted was a good used saddle, and there was a reason. I was of no mind to ride into Apache country with a squeaky new saddle. Now, any saddle will squeak a mite, and it's a comforting sort of sound, most times; but when there are Apache around any sound more than your breathing is liable to get you killed.

(from The Lonely Men, by Louis L'Amour)

Hiding feelings

     With none to share our sorrows or regrets, we kept them to ourselves, and our faces were impassive. Men with no one to share their feelings learn to conceal those feelings. We often spoke lightly of things which we took very seriously indeed.

    We were sentimental men, but that was our secret, for an enemy who knows your feelings is an enemy who has a hold on you. not all poker is played over a card table.

(from The Lonely Men, by Louis L'Amour)

The case for reading

     For most of his life, Churchill had taken refuge in books. He had never liked school, finding it grim, joyless struggle, and himself more often than not at the bottom of his class. He wasn't well liked by the other boys, and his parents had all but abandoned him, so he was left with few places to turn for solace and friendship.

(from Hero of the Empire, by Candice Willard)

British stupidity

    Although in the past week alone they had already lost two battles to an invisible and devastatingly effective enemy, the British army had continued to fight in line formation. Even Atkins marveled at the lines' uncompromising precision. "Each man [was] the appointed distance from his neighbour," he wrote, "and each row the appointed distance from the next." For the Boers, the sight was utterly bewildering,  bearing no resemblance to their battles with the Zulu, from whom they had learned how to hide.

(from Hero of the Empire, by Candice Millard)

What this town needs

    We rode into town with care, for we were all men with enemies. We rode with our guns loose in the holsters, ready to run or fight, as the case might be; but the street was empty, heavy with heat.

    The temperature was over a hundred in the shade.

    "All this town needs," John J. Battles said, "is more water and a better class of people."

(from The Lonely Men, by Louis L'Amour)

Confounded telephone!

     De Vincenzi had barely had time to notice Aurigi's ominously dark tone and aspect when the black telephone on the table rang three times. Angry and lacerating, like three desperate screams.

(from The Murdered Banker, by Augusto De Angelis)