Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/17

 sand in his composition, as far as one can judge, suddenly develops sand and lays out someone that is a terror. And the other kind of great and remarkable surprise is when a man, a brave man and a man that the hull camp respects, shows up as a coward and hasn't the guts of a chipmunk. That was the sad case with the very Smith that put his weary-lookin' countenance inside this bar and took a casual look at us. I'm sorry to say that he's an Englishman."

I begged him not to trouble about his being a countryman of mine, and asked for the story.

"It was remarkable, mighty remarkable," said Gedge thoughtfully, "but I'm havin' another struggle with my memory, which, as I said before, is a good one, but, as you may hev observed before, a trifle heavy on the pull-off. For some reason that I don't sabe, I cayn't recall the name of the person selected by Providence to show us that Smith had imposed on the world by an outward show of grit. I wish I could locate him, and then I could pitch you the tale as easy as fall off a log."