No matter how resolute the disdain with which he began to read it, he finished with his color high and his eyes incredulous and indignant.
The barbs failed to lose their sting.

They sank deeper and deeper.

In a terror of defense Kenny returned to the fray with added vim.

But Adam had a deftness with his barbs that his opponent lacked.
Compassion drove the younger man to restraint.

And Adam did not scruple to hide behind the bulwark of his own debility.
Night after night, mutinous at the glaring fact that in this singular battle of truth, Adam Craig was winning, Kenny rushed out into the peace and darkness of the night to seek Joan.