Quotation from: Elsinore

Written by: Jack London

"You will have to," she encouraged. "Be hard. Be hard. You must be
hard."

Those who sit in the high places must be hard, yet have I discovered
that it is hard to be hard. For instance, easy enough was it to drop
Steve Roberts as he was in the act of shooting at me. Yet it is most
difficult to be hard with a chuckle-headed retainer like Tom Spink--
especially when he continually fails by a shade to give sufficient
provocation. For twenty-four hours after my talk with Margaret I was
on pins and needles to have it out with him, yet rather than have had
it out with him I should have preferred to see the poop rushed by the
gang from the other side.