'I was a damned fool,' he said to himself; 'and I've been taught my lesson too late for me to benefit by it.

Except this way--I'm not going to be DOWNED for ever.

I'll go through my particular piece of hell, on this darned old earth if I must, and then I'll wipe the slate and come out on top of something else that isn't love.

There's possibilities enough along the Big Bight to satisfy most men's ambition.

And it's not much odds any way, so long as SHE isn't seriously hurt.' With that summing up of the matter, he seemed to gain stoic energy.