Explore "The Cottage" by Frank Belknap Long on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
To Will Durkin it seemed to be the realization of a long-cherished dream -- this return from town over a rutted dirt road, equipped and ready for a cruel duel with another man's offspring. He raised his left hand as he drove, staring at his bony knuckles, and then slashing at the empty air with a whiplash ferocity of purpose.
Perhaps there had been a hard core of cruelty in Durkin at birth. Perhaps he had knotted up his fists, and cried out in resentment on first seeing the sunlight, eager to hurt and punish.