Search -
Cavalier (The Works Of George W. Cable - 19 Volumes)
Cavalier - The Works Of George W. Cable - 19 Volumes Author:George W. Cable Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: mirth that froze my blood and then heated it to a fever. The company howled. They rolled over one another, crying, " Charlie Toliver! — Charlie Toliver! — Oh, Lo... more »rd, where's Scott Gholson!—Charlie Toliver! "— and leaped up and huddled down and moaned and rolled and rose and looked for me. But, after all, fortune was merciful, and I was gone; the Major had summoned me—his brother had come. I went circuitously and alone. As I started, some fellow writhing on the grass cried, " Charlie Tol—oh, this is better than a tcharade!" and a flash of divination enlightened me. While I went I burned with shame, rage and nervous exhaustion; the name Scott Gholson had gasped in my ear was the name of her in the curtained wagon, and I cursed the day in which I had heard of Charlotte Oliver. THREE DAYS' RATIONS In the vocabulary of a prig, but in the wrath of a fishwoman, I execrated Scott Gholson; his jealousies, his disclosures, his religion, his mispronunciations; and Ned Ferry—that cockerel! Here was I in the barrel, and able only to squeal in irate terror at whoever looked down upon me. I could have crawled under a log and died. At the door of the Major's tent I paused to learn why there was laughter in there also, and in the bewilderment and joy of one to whom comes reprieve when the rope is on his neck, I overheard Harry Helm,the General's nephew and aide-de-camp, who had been with us, telling what a howling good joke Smith had just got off on Gholson! " We shall have to get Ned Ferry back here," the Major was saying as I entered, " to make you boys let Scott Gholson alone." The young man laughed and turned to go. " Why doesn't Ned Ferry make her let Gholson alone? He can do it; he's got her round his finger as tight as she's got Gholson round hers." " Harry," replied the Ma...« less