`` I'm a mess '', she said, and suddenly she was alarmed.

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

`` That was a terrible thing to do '', I said to Oso.

The War Department wrote Mr. Manuel a letter and said he was a hero.

`` But that was war '', I said.

What else he said was lost in the rattle of gunfire on all sides.

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

`` Oh, no '', he said, and he was without humor now.

Normally Hague wasted no words, but now he found himself unable to stop their flow although he knew Kodyke was aware of all he said.

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.

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 ''??

She was still hugging the stained coat around her, so I said, `` Relax, let me take your things.

That was all she said.

This was the worst thing I could have said.

The girl took a couple of steps toward the man in shorts when Benson, in that barefoot courtliness Ramey could never decide was real, said, `` You don't want to go around there, Ma'am ''.

There was no doubt that Herr Schaffner meant every word of what he said.

But they never said anything, so he figured it was all right.

He said, lapsing into the profanity he often used when away from his parents and especially when he was with Charles.

While she was struggling to get her skirt down and get on her feet again, Jack ran over, offered her his hand and said, `` Gosh, I'm sorry, Miss Langford.

That should do it, he thought, because Miss Langford had said she was going to be strict about school work.

`` I only said I was hungry.

`` No, I don't think so '', said the big man, and it was the final clincher for Ernie.

`` I'd wind up full of bullet holes '', he said, and there was no question that he was talking about bullets fired by his coworkers.

He was thinking of Rittenhouse and how he had left him there, to rock to death on the porch of the Splendide.

The Gap looming before him -- the place where had confronted Jack English on that day so many years ago -- was his exit from all that had meaning to him.

Someone evidently was on duty there.

Then he was on his way at a gallop.

The bullet had torn through the flesh just above the knee, inflicting an ugly gash that was forming a pool of blood on the floor.

Mike tested the leg and found that he was able to hobble around on it.

Then he went on to the Cheyennes and told them that the Sioux was goin' to move up.

In the brief moment I had to talk to them before I took my post on the ring of defenses, I indicated I was sickened by the methods men employed to live and trade on the river.

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.

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

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.

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.

It was to him that Barton had sent Carl Dill on Dill's release from the prison.

He had to depend on himself, since he was invariably miles and hours away from others.

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

He'd put on his old brown corduroy coat and it was already soaked.

He was puffing on a cigar, and he was turning up his coat collar against the rain.

No man laid a hand on him, but the threat of violence was there.

I found a trooper once the Apache had spread-eagled on an ant hill, and another time we ran across some teamsters they'd caught, tied upside down on their own wagon wheels over little fires until their brains was exploded right out o' their skulls.