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39

"Don't get excited," he said, "we all thought it was a fine speech. That's what I been saying all along--you got to think, you got to...." He lurched backward when Rayber hit him, and landed sitting on the foot rest of the next chair. "Thought it was fine," he finished, looking steadily at Rayber's white, half-lathered face glaring down at him. "It's what I been saying all along."

The blood began pounding up Rayber's neck just under his skin. He turned and pushed quickly through the men around him to the door. Outside, the sun was suspending everything in a pool of heat and before he had turned the first corner, almost running, lather began to drip inside his collar and down the barber's bib, dangling to his knees.