He drew rein at Captain Lorrimer's and entered with curt nods in
exchange for the greetings.
"Red-eye," he ordered, and seized bottle and glass as Lorrimer spun them
deftly towards him.
Captain Lorrimer picked up the bottle and gazed at it mournfully when Vic
had poured his drink.
"Son," he murmured, "you've sure raised an awful thirst."
Chapter IV. King Hol
There is a very general and very erroneous impression that alcohol builds
the mood of a man; as a matter of fact it merely makes his temper of the
moment fast--the man who takes his first drink with a smile ends in
uproarious laughter, and he who frowns will often end in fighting. Vic
Gregg did not frown as he drank, but the corners of his lips turned up a
trifle in a smile of fixed and acid pleasantry and his glance went from
face to face in the barroom, steadily, with a trifling pause at each pair
of eyes. Beginning with himself, he hated mankind in general; the burn of
the cheap whisky within served to set the color of that hatred in a fixed
dye. He did not lift his chaser, but his hand closed around it hard.
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