It was the only thing in his life for which he felt guilt.

His looting of the orderly room had taken only a minute or two and the vicinity was still clear of guerrillas.

It was pitiful to see the thin ranks of warriors, old and young, wheeling and twisting their ponies frantically from side to side only to be tumbled bleeding from their saddles by the relentless slam, slam of the cruelly efficient Hawkinses.

The fire had gone down, and the man was only a shadow against the trees.

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

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

under the circumstances I was only too willing to confess all.

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

On a shelf in the office behind the counter was a small radio dialed permanently on a station which broadcast only vulgar commercials and cheap popular music.

Once, pressing him, I learned that his job was only part-time, in the afternoons when nothing went on in the hall.

Though only a relatively short walk separated it from my own part of town, its character was wholly foreign to me.

The river was only a few blocks away but an unbroken line of piers prevented me from seeing it.

Although it was dark as usual I could see that the hall had only recently contained a great many people.

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.

The only reason we brought you was to get Miller out.

The only thing which would have attracted attention was that two wore the uniform of prison guards, three the striped suits of convicts.

He had belonged to this land and, perhaps, had desecrated it -- and this was the only material symbol that remained of him.

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

Now, he could only play the last card in what was probably the world's coldest deck.

He was only vaguely aware of the sluicing rain.

He paused only long enough to ascertain that Jess's buckskin was still missing and that his own gray was all right, then climbed through a back window and dropped to the ground outside.

There was no lock on the door, only an iron hook which he unfastened.

Again he stood in the darkness listening, but there was only the scrape of a shod hoof on a plank floor.

They were dirty, their clothes were torn, and the girl was so exhausted that she fell when she was still twenty feet from the front door.

You see, he lied to us when he said he was leavin alone ''.

He was too old -- when he passed up and through the corridor of pines that lined the trail he could see ahead, he was passing from life.

A bullet tore the earth from beneath his foot when he was a stride or two from safety.

It was a relief when they finally came.

He was riding between two warriors, who held him erect when he started to slump.

Now, here was something of obvious importance to me, yet when I reached for the tickets he snatched them away from my hand.

At last, when I put it to him directly, the clerk was forced to admit that the delay in my case was unusual.

The slight flutter that had disturbed the motion of her heart when she entered the forest was gone now, and even the dim groves of trees through which she occasionally passed did not reawaken her fear.

If, when this was all over, she found the words to tell him about it, she wondered if he would ever understand.

How could he comprehend her need when he himself was innocent??

His face was stiff with anger when they let go of his arms.

He was uttering threats in a low but savage voice when they closed and padlocked the door.

No man's name brought more cheers when it was announced in a rodeo.

In the cow camps, Tom Horn was regarded as a hero, as the same kind of champion he was when he entered and invariably won the local rodeos.

Out in the center of the circle the farmer, who was Dan, wasted no time when they came to the line, `` The farmer choose his wife ''.

Even the knowledge that she was losing another boy, as a mother always does when a marriage is made, did not prevent her from having the first carefree, dreamless sleep that she had known since they dropped down the canyon and into Bear Valley, way, way back there when they were crossing those other mountains.

Stevens was grunting over the last empty pocket when Russ abruptly rose and lunged toward Carmer's hat, which had tumbled half-a-dozen feet away when he first fell.