leothefox

“Prim, why don’t you ever use my name?” His face took on that look again, but it wavered and was replaced by a different one. I didn’t know what to think, but he came near and knelt by the bed. “I’m almost afraid to say it, but, you see, I know that Kist Vargo is not your name.” XXII: The Hospital Bed My mind was a world of horrible spinning and visions of the Captain’s mask being covered in snow. I saw myself sinking up to my legs in mud inside the cave and being eaten alive by tiny crabs, reduced to a writhing pile of bones. Once again, I awoke in an infirmary. This was not the civilized shipboard kind, but a land-dweller’s hospital. The smells and the glazed walls gave it away. There was also the attractive nurse who leaned over me, a wry smile on his face as he pulled back my eyelid and muttered “Clouded pupils, probably brain damage too.” “Not brain damage!” I exclaimed. The man had thought me to be catatonic, and dropped both his smile and his tray. He

VII. The Camp and the Drunkard On doctor's order, Theodore did not disembark from the ship right away when they made the dock. The residents of the scant settlement were all abuzz, for they had heard of the blockade, and the sailors were letting out scraps of news of how the blockade was beaten. The setting, we must address, is what citizens of The United States call Oregon Country, but which is generally considered politic for all others to call the Columbia District. Our heroes in this strange history are sons of those United States, and so we shall refer to the place as Oregon Country. It may trouble you to picture the scene of this place, our humble reader, and we feel the need to lay it out for you. This piece of Oregon Country, while still quite wild today, was almost entirely ruled by nature at the time of these events, being the summer months of 1819. The population, for such we have hinted there was, numbered under two hundred persons, most of them working men

Chapter 23: Talked to Death The priest's lecture went on: “Oh, my children, you may claim hardship for your pitiful condition, but you know, as the Keeper of the Stone knows, that this is merely a wall of fog you drape before your vision. Deceive yourselves no longer and open your eyes that it is your own foolishness that has put you out of work and of money. The man with a good heart and good effort will throw the bottle in the face of your self-deception and work his way, honestly, from this pit of failure, up into the light of the highest levels! You say you have been stiffed, that society is some kind of scam, and this, my children, is no more than whistling past the graveyard. Oh you stop, do you not? You look scared. You move along! You try not to think of death and the completion of your failure, the real failure that will prevent your reaching the Stone of Light. You are here, my poor children, in the magma of ignorance.” You may well ask: what kind of priest would

XXIV. The Window, The Door, and The Bullet In the attic of the roadside inn, Nedward Bellamy beat two of his victims nearly to death, and then threatened the Claimant, Roger Tichborne, with death. Hiding in a crawl space, Brett Piper reached the gun brought by farmer, Martin Downe, only to find his wrist snatched. Brett looked and saw that it was the farmer himself who held him, having just returned to consciousness. The farmer's drawn face stared into Brett's. Neither man had ever seen the other, and yet their destinies were entwined. The two men's eyes were locked and the moment felt as though it went on forever. Neither dared to speak, and if they had it might have been murder in itself. Martin Downe could not know that this was the man he had been sent to deal with, perhaps to silence forever, but here they were, their faces inches apart. All at once, Bellamy turned to the corner and saw the two men, evidently struggling for the gun. “Philistines!” he cried, “you

“Dear Readers, Do you suffer from flu? Headaches? Toothaches? Upset stomach? With the aid of Detective Stinger Tusk's scientific efforts, we have uncovered the solution to all of these and 150 other ailments. This is not the usual 'cure all' or 'tonic' one often finds sold by doubtful healers, but an elixir that gets at the root of all human ailments: the general weakness of the constitution of modern man. In this era of scientific comforts and industrial development, we have lost our own former vitality. This elixir is the solution! Send along a self address envelope and 50 cents and receive the key to health and vibrancy that was known to men long before the Egyptians erected pyramids on the burning sand! -The Editors” Chapter 19: Three Many Cooks We hid in a depression in the wall of the mine, with the two false brothers walking right up towards our hiding place! We could hardly run away, however, nor could we simply kill the two enemy agents, for Dale