He glanced neither way, mouth set, face green-white, the slow
sweat glassy all over him. Not a bad man, by a mile, I knew. It don't
take me a week to size a man up, and I've seen 'em in so many
conditions, red and pale, sick, dead, and well, that outside symptoms
don't count for much.
I noticed another thing, that I expected. Out of the corner of my eye
I see them boys nudgin' each other and talkin' about me. And the more
I rode along so quiet, the more scart of me they got.
I tell you how I'd test a brave man. I'd line the competitors up, and
then spring a fright behind them. Last man to cross the mark is the
bravest man--still, he might only be the poorest runner. With fellers
like me, it ain't courage at all. It's lunacy. I ain't in my right
mind when a sharp turn comes. Why, I've gone cold a year after,
thinking of things I laughed my way through when they happened. But
I'm not quarrelling with fate--I thank the good Lord I'm built as I am,
and don't feel scornful of a man that keeps his sense and acts scart
and reasonable.
In one way, poor old Burton, lugging himself into the game by the
scruff of his pants, showed more real man than I did. Yet, he couldn't
accomplish anything; so there you are, if you know where that is.
I said nothing until we slid off beneath the first tree. Then I walked
up to the three leaders and says, whilst the rest gathered around and
listened:
"Has this critter been tried?"
"Why, no!" says one man.
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