Quotes Revenge



Format: Triple

I, being still blinded by her beauty, for, O my friend, the women of the Abazai are very fair, said: ‘Hast thou no fear?’ And she answered: ‘None—but only the fear that I do not die.’ Then said I ‘Have no fear.’ And she bowed her head, and I smote it off at the neck-bone so that it leaped between my feet.

  

This is from “Dray Wara Yow Dee” collected in In Black and White (1889) and Soldiers Three and Other Stories (1890).

The story-teller meets a Pathan horse-dealer, whose life is consumed by the desire for revenge on the lover of his beautiful wife. Arriving early from a journey he had caught them together, and slaughtered his wife, but the lover had escaped him. Now he is pursuing him, tireless and implacable.


“Understand, gentlemen,” I said. “If the Breslau is made a sixteen-day boat, ye’ll find another engineer.”

“Bannister makes no objection,” said Holdock.

“I’m speakin’ for myself,” I said. “Bannister has bairns.” An’ then I lost my temper. “Ye can run her into Hell an’ out again if ye pay pilotage,” I said, “but ye run without me.”

   

This is from “Bread upon the Waters” collected in The Day’s Work.

McPhee is a ship’s engineer of many years service. His company, Holdock, Steiner and Chase,  has new men on the board, keen to save money. They want to cut the time across the Atlantic from eighteen days to sixteen. He knows and says that this cannot be done without expensive refitting that they will not pay for, and they sack him.

He is quickly hired by a rival company, and discovers that Holdock’s are sending a vessel to sea with a crack in its propellor shaft. He follows, and in heavy weather the propellor drops off. The crew are rescued by a passing liner.

At risk of his life he goes on board and salvages the ship. It is a heavy loss to Holdock’s and has made him a wealthy man. But – more important – he has his revenge.


Sir Thomas explained that he was sick and tired of processions of cads of our type, who would be better employed breaking stones on the road than in frightening horses worth more than themselves or their ancestors …  There were other remarks too—primitive enough,—but it was the  brutality of the tone, even more than the quality of the justice, or the laughter of the audience that stung our souls out of all reason.

   

This is from “The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat” in A Diversity of Creatures.

A party of motorists are had for speeding. They are fined, which matters little, but  also addressed by the chairman of the bench, the local landowner and MP, who – unwisely – chooses to insult them. With the next defendant, a music hall impresario, who has also been insulted, they plot their revenge.

In an elaborate campaign, involving skillfully placed newspaper stories, a show in the village followed by a banquet, and a song which sweeps the nation, they make Sir Thomas and his village a laughing stock.

Revenge is sweet, though the story-teller is staggered by the avalanche of publicity they have launched.