Library / Literature & Fiction
The Auction Block
by Rex Beach
- Pages
- about 378
- Category
- Literature & Fiction
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6.9 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
Peter Knight flung himself into the decrepit arm-chair beside the
center-table and growled:
"Isn't that just my luck? And me a Democrat for twenty years. There's
nothing in politics, Jimmy."
His son James smiled crookedly, with a languid tolerance bespeaking
amusement and contempt. James prided himself upon his forbearance, and
it was rarely indeed that he betrayed more than a hint of the
superiority which he felt toward his parent.
"Politics is all right, provided you're a good picker," he said, with
all the assurance of twenty-two, "but you fell off the wrong side of
the fence, and you're sore."
"These country towns always go in for the reform stuff, every so often.
If you'd listen to me and--"
His father interrupted harshly: "Now, cut that out. I don't want to go
to New York, and I won't." Peter Knight tried to look forceful, but the
expression did not fit his weak, complacent features. He was a plump
man with red cheeks rounded by habitual good humor; his chin was short,
and beneath it were other chins, distended and sagging as if from the
weight of chuckles within. When he had succeeded in fixing a look of
determination upon his countenance the result was an artificial scowl
and a palpably false pout. Wearing such a front, he continued: "When I
say 'no' I mean it, and the subject is closed. I like Vale, I know
everybody here, and everybody knows me."
"That's why it's time to move," said Jim, with another unpleasant curl
of his lip. "As long as they didn't know you you got past. But you'll
never hold another office."
"Indeed! My record's open to inspection. I made the best sheriff in--"
"Two years. Don't kid yourself, pa. Your foot slipped when the trolley
line went through."
"What do you know about the trolley line?" angrily demanded Mr. Knight.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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