| 3:00a |
@@@@@Ah don' care how long Ah know him, Wilson
@@@@@Ah don' care how long Ah know him, Wilson told himself, they ain't no call for him to handle me any ol' wayNext time he do somethin' like that, Ah'll give him a belt or twoHe broke off moodily, and looked out across the barbed wireThe bush had been sheared away at its roots, and he had a fine field of viewShoulda done that long ago, he told himselfHe was feeling very hurt by Croft's angerJus' a little ol' burst o' machine-gun fireAbruptly, he realized that the entire bivouac probably was awake now, and men everywhere were listening tenselyGoddam, Wilson sighed, Ah get in more trouble when Ah get drunkHe began to giggle to himself
Next morning the squad returned to the bivouac of headquarters and headquarters companyThey had been away for seven days and eight nights
The Time Machine:
RED VALSEN
THE WANDERING MINSTREL
Everything about him was bony and knobbedHe was over six feet tall without weighing one hundred and fifty poundsIn silhouette his profile consisted almost entirely of a large blob of a nose and a long low-slung jaw, a combination which made his face seem boiled and angryHe had an expression of concentrated contempt but behind it his tired eyes, a rather painful blue, were quiet, marooned by themselves in a web of wrinkles and freckles
The horizon is always closeIt never lifts beyond the hills that surround the town, never goes past the warped old wood of the miners' houses or rises above the top of the mine shaftsThe pale-brown earth of the Montana hills has settled over the valleyYou must understand that The Company owns everythingA long time ago they laid the track into the valley, bored the mine shafts, built the miners' frame houses, threw up the company store, and even gave them a churchSince then, the town is a troughThe wages skid out of the shafts and end up in a company hopper; what with drinking in the company saloon, buying food and clothing, and paying the rent, there is nothing left overAll the horizons end at the mine elevator
And Red learns that ear |