22 The Untamed
how he smiled when I licked him! But listen to me, Kate, that fear has been with me all the time - an it's the only time I've ever been afraid of any man. It isn't like being scared of a man, but of a panther.
"Now we'll jest nacherally add up all the points we've made about Dan - the queer way I found him without a home an' without wantin' one - that strength he has that's like the power of a mule compared with a horse - that funny control he has over wild animals so that they almost seem to know what he means when he simply looks at them (have you noticed him with Black Bart and Satan?) - then there's the yellow light that comes in his eyes when he begins to get real mad - you an' I have both seen it only once, but we don't want to see it again! More than this there's the way he handles either a knife or a gun. He hasn't practiced much with shootin' irons, but I never seen him miss a reasonable mark or an unreasonable one either, for that matter. I've spoke to him about it. He said: 'I dunno how it is. I don't see how a feller can shoot crooked. It jest seems that when I get out a gun there's a line drawn from the barrel to the thing I'm shootin' at. All I have to do is to pull the trigger almost with my eyes closed!' Now.
