Strapper is a lad just turning into a man: strong, selfish,
sulky, and determined.]
BLANCO [sitting up and tidying himself]--
Oh woman, in our hours of ease.
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please--
Is my face scratched? I can feel their damned claws all over me
still. Am I bleeding? [He sits on the nearest bench].
ELDER DANIELS. Nothing to hurt. Theyve drawn a drop or two under
your left eye.
STRAPPER. Lucky for you to have an eye left in your head.
BLANCO [wiping the blood off]--
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou.
Go out to them, Strapper Kemp; and tell them about your big
brother's little horse that some wicked man stole. Go and cry in
your mammy's lap.
STRAPPER [furious] You jounce me any more about that horse,
Blanco Posnet; and I'll--I'll--
BLANCO. Youll scratch my face, wont you? Yah! Your brother's the
Sheriff, aint he?
STRAPPER. Yes, he is. He hangs horse-thieves.
BLANCO [with calm conviction] He's a rotten Sheriff. Oh, a rotten
Sheriff. If he did his first duty he'd hang himself. This is a
rotten town. Your fathers came here on a false alarm of gold-
digging; and when the gold didn't pan out, they lived by licking
their young into habits of honest industry.
STRAPPER. If I hadnt promised Elder Daniels here to give him a
chance to keep you out of Hell, I'd take the job of twisting your
neck off the hands of the Vigilance Committee.
BLANCO [with infinite scorn] You and your rotten Elder, and your
rotten Vigilance Committee!
STRAPPER.
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