“Ugh!”
“Wal, if we’d drank it first we couldn’t have washed in it after. I guess them chaps had logic. When we did strike a spring, gold wasn’t in it for excitement. It was like finding heaven. Hookey swore he’d never touch whisky again, and he didn’t until we hit the next saloon.”
She laughed merrily as he turned and dried his wet hands.
“It’s good to hear you laugh,” he said. “If you’d only laugh sometimes, Angela, I wouldn’t care a damn about short rations. I seen men laugh on the plains when the chances were that two hours later their scalps would be hanging at the belts of Injuns. I was only a kid then ... but laughing is a fine thing. You can’t beat a man who laughs.”
“You used to laugh then?”
“Sure!”
“But not now!”
He stared out through the window. 256
“Maybe that’s why I’m being beaten,” he said.
She stood up and touched him on the arm.