The Laughing Man — Vocabulary
J. D. Salinger
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I had no idea what was going on between the Chief and Mary Hudson (and still haven't, in any but a fairly low, intuitive sense), but nonetheless, I couldn't have been more certain that Mary Hudson had permanently dropped out of the Comanche lineup.†1 more

At all costs, stifle my natural hideous laughter.†2 more

He shrugged slightly, as much as to imply, it seemed to me, that the picture had more or less been planted on him.†

However, the Dufarges had no intention of liberating Black Wing, whom they feared and loathed.†1 more

Moreover, he removed his mask and spoke to them, softly, melodiously, in their own tongues.†

Then the Chief took over, revealing what had formerly been a well-concealed flair for incompetence.†

I had no idea what was going on between the Chief and Mary Hudson (and still haven't, in any but a fairly low, intuitive sense), but nonetheless, I couldn't have been more certain that Mary Hudson had permanently dropped out of the Comanche lineup.†

Soon the Laughing Man had amassed the largest personal fortune in the world. Most of it he contributed anonymously to the monks of a local monastery--

There were twenty-five Comanches in the Club, or twenty-five legitimate living descendants of the Laughing Man—all of us circulating ominously, and incognito, throughout the city, sizing up elevator operators as potential archenemies, whispering side-of-the-mouth but fluent orders into the ears of cocker spaniels, drawing beads, with index fingers, on the foreheads of arithmetic teachers.†

Omba bowed his own slightly distorted head and revealed to his master that the Dufarges had killed Black Wing.†

She was wearing a catcher's mitt, her own adamant choice.†

However, the Dufarges had no intention of liberating Black Wing, whom they feared and loathed.†

There was a compassionate side to the Laughing Man's character that just about drove me crazy.†

He took Mary Hudson aside, just out of earshot of the Comanches, and seemed to address her solemnly, rationally.†

Once he started narrating, our interest never flagged.†1 more

He was an impartial and unexcitable umpire at all our bedlam sporting events, a master fire builder and extinguisher, and an expert, uncontemptuous first-aid man.†

Just in passing, he was an Eagle Scout, an almost-All-America tackle of 1926, and it was known that he had been most cordially invited to try out for the New York Giants' baseball team.†

As the Dufarges came into range, he suddenly raised his face, gave a terrible laugh, and neatly, even fastidiously, regurgitated all four bullets.†

And always waiting, waiting for a decent chance to strike terror and admiration in the nearest mediocre heart.†

Soon the Laughing Man was regularly crossing the Chinese border into Paris, France, where he enjoyed flaunting his high but modest genius in the face of Marcel Dufarge, the internationally famous detective and witty consumptive.†