We've escaped from many a tight corner, an' mebbe we're goin' to do it ag'in." "Shut up!" said Braxton Wyatt savagely.

"If you say another word I'll gag you in a way that will make you squirm." Shif'less Sol looked him squarely in the eye.

Solomon Hyde, who was not shiftless at all, had a dauntless soul, and he was not afraid now in the face of death preceded by long torture.
"I had a dog once, Braxton Wyatt," he said, "an' I reckon he wuz the meanest, ornierest cur that ever lived.

He liked to live on dirt, the dirtier the place he could find the better; he'd rather steal his food than get it honestly; he wuz sech a coward that he wuz afeard o' a rabbit, but ef your back wuz turned to him he'd nip you in the ankle.
But bad ez that dog wuz, Braxton, he wuz a gentleman 'longside o' you." Some of the Indians understood English, and Wyatt knew it.

He snatched a pistol from his belt, and was about to strike Sol with the butt of it, but a tall figure suddenly appeared before him, and made a commanding gesture.