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Title: Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories

Author: Rex Beach

Release Date: March 16, 2004 [eBook #11501]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII


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LAUGHING BILL HYDE

And Other Stories

By REX BEACH

AUTHOR OF

"Rainbow's End," "Heart of the Sunset," "The Spoilers," Etc.

1917






[Illustration: "LIKE ME?" HE ASKED. PONATAH TURNED AWAY BLINDLY]






Mr. William Hyde was discharged from Deer Lodge Penitentiary a changed
man. That was quite in line with the accepted theory of criminal
jurisprudence, the warden's discipline, and the chaplain's prayers.
Yes, Mr. Hyde was changed, and the change had bitten deep; his
humorous contempt for the law had turned to abiding hatred; his
sunburned cheeks were pallid, his lungs were weak, and he coughed
considerably. Balanced against these results, to be sure, were the
benefits accruing from three years of corrective discipline at the
State's expense; the knack of conversing through stone walls, which
Mr. Hyde had mastered, and the plaiting of wonderful horsehair
bridles, which he had learned. Otherwise he was the same "Laughing
Bill" his friends had known, neither more nor less regenerate.

Since the name of Montana promised to associate itself with unpleasant
memories, Mr. Hyde determined at once to bury his past and begin life
anew in a climate more suited to weak lungs. To that end he stuck up a
peaceful citizen of Butte who was hurrying homew

Rex Ellingwood Beach (September 1, 1877 December 7, 1949) was an American novelist, playwright, and Olympic water polo player. Rex Beach was born in Atwood, Michigan to a prominent family and pursued a career as a lawyer before being drawn to Alaska at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. After five years of unsuccessful prospecting, he turned to writing.

Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 13 August 1946)[1], better known as H. G. Wells, was an English writer most famous today for the science fiction novels he published between 1895 and 1901. The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes, and The First Men in the Moon. He was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and produced works in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary. He was an outspoken socialist, his later works becoming increasingly political and didactic. Only his early science fiction novels are widely read today. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as The Father of Science Fiction.[2]

Addison Irving Bacheller (September 26, 1859 February 24, 1950) was an American journalist and writer who founded the first modern newspaper syndicate in the United States.