The Forbidden Way

...he went over to a cracked mirror in the corner and examined his face, grinning at his image and touching the red marks with his fingers. "That was a love-tap for fair," he said. "I reckon I deserved it. But she oughtn't to push a man too far. She was sure angry. Won't speak now for a while." He turned with a confident air. "She'll come around, though," he laughed. "You just bet she will." (From chapter 1 of The Forbidden Way) George Gibbs was an American writer best known for writing action and adventure novels, as well as spy thrillers in foreign lands. One of them was 1911's The Forbidden Way.