He had his eye upon a place connected with the city pound.
When the great railroad strike occurred, he promptly got himself engaged as deputy-sheriff, and spent a memorable week in Sacramento, where he involved himself in more than one terrible melee with the strikers.
Marcus had that quickness of temper and passionate readiness to take offence which passes among his class for bravery.

But whatever were his motives, his promptness to face danger could not for a moment be doubted.

After the strike he returned to Polk Street, and throwing himself into the Improvement Club, heart, soul, and body, soon became one of its ruling spirits.

In a certain local election, where a huge paving contract was at stake, the club made itself felt in the ward, and Marcus so managed his cards and pulled his wires that, at the end of the matter, he found himself some four hundred dollars to the good.
When McTeague came out of his "Parlors" at noon of the day upon which Trina had heard the news of Maria Macapa's intended marriage, he found Trina burning coffee on a shovel in the sitting-room.

Try as she would, Trina could never quite eradicate from their rooms a certain faint and indefinable odor, particularly offensive to her.