“There will always be a question which is the best fighter—the lion or
the bull, ’cause the way things broke it was impossible to tell which
won.”
“I know who lost,” says Dirty, digging a hunk of mud out of his hair.
“Piperock got something for nothing, didn’t they? Maybe it wasn’t much,
gents, but it was something. Now, us three went plumb to Granite,
suffered the pangs of—Magpie, didn’t you say something about us bein’
laborers of love? Didn’t yuh? Ain’t we the losers?”
“Love’s labor loses,” nods Magpie. “Don’t it sound poetical?”
“Up to a certain point she was poetical,” says Dirty. “But after she
gets past that point she’s what ‘Muley’ Bowles would designate as ‘blank
verse.’”
[Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in Adventure Magazine,
February 18, 1921. It is believed to be in the public domain in the
United States; copyright status may differ in other countries.]