He found that if he was tired enough at night, he went to sleep simply because he was too exhausted to stay awake.

Dawn would come soon and the night was at its coldest.

And he was fleeing, running -- fleeing his death and his life at the same time.

Then he was on his way at a gallop.

He scuttled in shadow along the east wall of the stockade and then followed the south wall until he was at the rear of the two frame buildings.

A man was standing in the open door of the lighted orderly room a few yards to Mike's left, but he, too, suddenly made up his mind and went racing to join the confused activity at the east end of the stockade.

Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.

She had picked up the quirt and was twirling it around her wrist and smiling at him.

I was nearly thirty at the time.

only the counter at one end was lighted by a long fluorescent tube suspended directly above it.

I was at once disappointed, although just what I had expected him to look like I could not have explained.

This desire, I went on, growing voluble as my conviction was aroused, had mounted at such a rate recently that I now found its realization necessary not only to my physical but also to my spiritual wellbeing.

Facing the forest now, she who had not dared to enter it before, walked between two trees at random and headed in what she believed was the direction of the pool.

She regarded them as signs that she was nearing the glen she sought, and she was glad to at last be doing something positive in her unenunciated, undefined struggle with the mountain and its darkling inhabitants.

laughing at a dying man, laughing as a man was beaten to death.

He'd started a fire and put coffee on, and now was busy at the work board of his chuck wagon.

Hank had gathered wood for a cookfire, and his wife was busy at it now.

Tom Horn was soon back at work, giving his secret employers their money's worth.

Haying time was close at hand, and they needed some strong branches to repair a hay rack.

`` It was Brenner's idea '', Jess mumbled, dabbing at his nose.

Seeing them waiting there at the foot of Emigrant Rock was so overwhelming that, for a good minute after they rounded the bend and started down the grade leading toward them, Matilda could not speak at all.

When they were closer and he saw that one was a woman, he was more puzzled than ever.

Morgan hesitated, thinking that if this was a trick, it was a good one.

There was no one but me.

The pony herd was the one flaw in our defense ; ;

He grabbed her by the shoulders and went down on one knee, taking her weight so that some of the wind was driven out of him.

There was only one place where Jake Carwood's description had gone badly awry: the peace and quiet.

The town was about what Wilson expected: one main street with its rows of false-fronted buildings, a water tower, a few warehouses, a single hotel ; ;

In the mornings, I was informed, fluorescent tubes, similar to the one above the counter, illuminated the entire hall.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

The one thing they had in common was their hatred.

When they reached their neighbor's house, Pamela said a few polite words to Grace and kissed Melissa lightly on the forehead, the impulse prompted by a stray thought -- of the type to which she was frequently subject these days -- that they might never see one another again.

There was only one place where the mountain might receive her -- that unnamed, unnameable pool harbored in its secret bosom.

But she was caught in it, and she faced the terrible possibility that, if it were a dream, it was one from which she might never awaken.

That was another one of those traps.

At one and the same time, she was within it but still searching for the drawbridge that would give her entry.

All the doors were open at this hour except one, and it was toward this that Stevens made his way with Russ close at his shoulder.

An Ah coudn ansuh him an so Ah said ' Aw right, Ah gay-ess, an his fathuh didn uttuh one wohd an aftuh Huhmun was gone, the majuh laughed an tole me thet he an the bawh had been hevin an occasional drink t'gethuh f'ovuh a yeah, onleh an occasional one, but just the same it was behahn mah back, an Ah doan think thet's nahce at all, d'you ''??

He was well rid of her.

Her blond hair was frowzy, her dress torn in several places, and her shoes were so completely worn out that they were practically no protection.

It must have hurt her even to walk, for the sole was completely off her left foot and Morgan saw that it was bruised and bleeding.

He treats her like she was dirt.

He might tell her how sorry a spectacle she was making of herself, pretending to be blind to the way Julia Fortune had taken Dean's affections from her.

She was carrying a quirt, and she started to raise it, then let it fall again and dangle from her wrist.

She said, and her tone had softened until it was almost friendly.

He got up slowly, and she was already on her feet, and he stood facing her.

She brought up her free hand to hit him, but this time he was quicker.

But her prettiness was what he had noticed first, and all the other things had come afterward: cruelty, meanness, self-will.

That girl last night, what was her name??

It was the only thing about her that was the least bit hard to remember.

So simple, in fact, that it might even work -- although Pamela, now, in her new frame of mind, was careful not to pretend too much assurance.

It was there that she would have to enact her renunciation, beg forgiveness.