"Underhanded" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... told me you did it, and not leave your ole father to find it out how you disgraced yourself and him, too, by a low-down, underhanded, woman's trick! I've said I done it, and took the blame myself, and all the sneakiness of it that folks suspect. If I get away alive—and I don't care much which—you needn't foller. The house and stock are yours; but you ain't any longer ...
— Stories in Light and Shadow • Bret Harte
... kittenhood. You would have taken oath that a cultured taste for good living was the chief of his offences, and that this benevolent gentleman had some sixty well-spent years to his credit. True, his late Majesty, King Louis XI, had sworn Pacque Dieu! that d'Arnaye loved underhanded work so heartily that he conspired with his gardener concerning the planting of cabbages, and within a week after his death would be heading some treachery against Lucifer; but kings are not always infallible, as his Majesty himself had proven ...
— The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages • James Branch Cabell
... the frame-up in itself was peculiar in this case; it was simply that it wasn't Sir Lewis Huntley's style. If Sir Lewis had wanted to get Harris, he'd have done it legally, without any underhanded frame-ups. Still, the theory remained as ...
— The Penal Cluster • Ivar Jorgensen (AKA Randall Garrett)
... intentions of the authorities, and their underhanded method of carrying them out, determined to thwart them. He directed Carson to take three men, the loose animals and the camp equipage, and move on, with the instructions, that if he did not soon join him, to push on; that if ...
— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters
... supply the year's plain clothing and meals, the melancholy prudence of the abandonment of such a great being as a man is to the toss and pallor of years of money-making, with all their scorching days and icy nights, and all their stifling deceits and underhanded dodgings, or infinitesimals of parlours, or shameless stuffing while others starve,—and all the loss of the bloom and odour of the earth, and of the flowers and atmosphere, and of the sea, and of the true taste of the women and men you pass or have to do with ...
— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman
... with one I trust so absolutely? You think us Northmen cold, underhanded. I do not intend virtually to take my life back from your hands, and at the same time to keep that life aloof from you as if you had nothing to do with it. If I survive the war, whichever way it turns, I shall always cherish your memory as one of my ideals, and shall feel ...
— An Original Belle • E. P. Roe
... Hawkins got up and began to pace the floor with excited eyes and with gesturing hands]—"something enormous going on in iron, without the shadow of a doubt, and here I sit mousing in the dark and never knowing anything about it; great heaven, what an escape I've made! this underhanded mercenary creature might have taken me up—and ruined me! but I have escaped, and I warrant me I'll not put ...
— The Gilded Age, Part 1. • Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Charles Dudley Warner
... do anything which looks in the least underhanded, but I must admit that I left that wretched cottage by the back door, and taking a path through some woods, made a wide circuit before returning to ...
— The House of Martha • Frank R. Stockton
... correct will be proved in the next volume of this series, to be entitled, "Dave Porter and His Classmates; or, For the Honor of Oak Hall." In that volume we shall meet all our friends again, and also Laura Porter, and learn how Dave met the underhanded work of Link Merwell and ...
— Dave Porter in the Far North - or, The Pluck of an American Schoolboy • Edward Stratemeyer
... have to some time, and—oh, Felix! I wish we could tell him, and mother, soon! It makes me feel so underhanded, and it mars my happiness, just a little, darling. Don't you think it would be better to face the music and have it ...
— The Fate of Felix Brand • Florence Finch Kelly
... of the Abolitionists. The nigger driver and the negrophile are two odious things to me. I must make Lady Macbeth's reservation: 'Had he not resembled—,'"] The Governor must have looked back with regret to that period in the history of the colony when he was underhanded ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan
... There's Phil Elderkin, now,—you say to me, over and over, 'See Phil, he doesn't do so.' But he does,—only his father knows he does; he a'n't punished, if he isn't in at nine o'clock for prayers, without telling where he's been. It's all underhanded with me, and with Phil it's all aboveboard. I have to read proper books that I don't care a copper about, and so I steal 'em into my chamber; and Aunt Eliza, prying about, finds 'Arabian Nights' ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 • Various
... named from a street in ancient New York, where was situated the stock exchange, and where the irrational organization of society permitted underhanded manipulation of all the industries of ...
— The Iron Heel • Jack London
... schemed to keep her dear dead father away from his home, and he was still working in an underhanded way for what? Was he trying to get out of the way the two nephews who would replace his master? If he had the power to do this, what might he not do to her if she refused to ...
— Nobody's Girl - (En Famille) • Hector Malot
... The thing is appalling. Evidently the sport is nothing but a constant series of compromises with one's better nature, what with sneaking about pretending to be something that one is not, trying to fool the fish into thinking one thing when just the reverse is true, and in general behaving in an underhanded and tricky ...
— Love Conquers All • Robert C. Benchley
... and mad. "Just like you to come spyin' round. You allers was a meddler, an' underhanded. But now you know the truth, what are you going to ...
— The Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks • Charles Felton Pidgin
... their influence to prevent the men under their control from receiving pardons. If a man is sentenced for ten years, and has been in one of the shops for two or three years, and has learned to do his work well, the contractor will want to keep him instead of letting him go, and will, no doubt, in an underhanded way, do all against the poor prisoner he can. This strong influence in many cases will have to be counteracted and overcome before the prisoner can receive his pardon and obtain his liberty. A pardoning board, when appointed, should be men who would not be in collusion with the contractors, ...
— The Twin Hells • John N. Reynolds
... in the way of this—a fact which nothing but some predetermined, underhanded purpose on her part could explain. She had gone in disguise to The Whispering Pines, and she had returned home in the same suspicious fashion. The wearing of her brother's hat and coat over her own womanly garments was no freak. There had been purpose in it—a purpose ...
— The House of the Whispering Pines • Anna Katharine Green
... into a vindictive cry: "Who else, Steve—who else? Why, the slut has brought a MAN here—a sneaking, deceitful, underhanded, crazy lover!" ...
— A Sappho of Green Springs • Bret Harte
... simple and high-minded gentleman the story of the private paper relating to the cession of Canada, which Franklin had permitted Lord Shelburne to see. Grenville immediately took offence; he made up his mind that something underhanded was going on, and that this was the reason for the coldness of Franklin and Vergennes; and he wrote an indignant letter about it to Fox. From the wording of this letter, Fox got the impression that Franklin's proposal was much more serious than it really was. It naturally puzzled him and made ...
— The Critical Period of American History • John Fiske
... best turn he has done you, miladi. I never fancied him. There was something underhanded and mean about him. I have seen his face when you were not looking, and I'm ...
— One Wonderful Night - A Romance of New York • Louis Tracy
... not promise never to speak to him again. She made the promise, and the manner in which she did not keep it adds the necessary human touch to this most beautiful of true love stories. Schumann was never underhanded by choice, or at all, except a little on occasion in this love affair; so now he called at once upon his old teacher, ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 2 • Rupert Hughes
... first place, and she kept on bringing me. I don't suppose it ever occurred to Kirk to wonder who I was and who my father might be. He has been perfectly straight. If you like to say I have been underhanded, I admit it. I have. More so than you imagine. I just wanted him, and I didn't care for ...
— The Coming of Bill • P. G. Wodehouse
... Professor Hollister's report failed to mention any such deposits. As a matter of fact they did not exist. But Mr. Gordon summoned experts of his own, who attacked my husband's statements. The professor declined to enter into a public controversy. His dignity would not permit him. Underhanded influence was brought to bear on the Governor, and the appointment was given to another. But time has shown. Discredited and beaten though he seemed to be, my husband was right. The Gordon lands proved valueless. Those in which Professor ...
— Shorty McCabe on the Job • Sewell Ford
... distinct word. Her mother said "Yes?" and "Yes," and "Yes, Ben." And then: "Oh, Ben! I don't understand." And then her mother's voice sharpened, and she cut into something Gaynor was saying: "I can't say anything like that! It is as though we suspected him of being underhanded. And——" ...
— The Everlasting Whisper • Jackson Gregory
... children, denotes trouble from enemies, and anxious forebodings from underhanded work ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller
... county- seat. As old Jason Hawn and old Aaron Honeycutt had retired from the leadership, and little Jason and little Aaron had been out of the hills, leadership naturally was assumed by these two business rivals, who revived the old hostility between the factions, but gave vent to it in a secret, underhanded way that disgusted not only old Jason but even old Aaron as well. For now and then a hired Hawn would drop a Honeycutt from the bushes and a hired Honeycutt would drop a Hawn. There was, said old ...
— The Heart Of The Hills • John Fox, Jr.
... give lying answers instead of true ones. Give me a man who speaks out straight, and who knows nothing of crooked ways. The men that the country wants are not clever, scheming men, who wriggle out of difficulties by underhanded ways, but those who see only the truth, and speak it, and fight for it if needs be. I am glad I had a fair amount of schooling, as becomes one who ought to have been the squire of a parish, but I am more thankful because I stand six feet ...
— The Birthright • Joseph Hocking
... Mr Winter replied, "was as defenseless against undersea and underhanded attack as a Hoboken ferryboat in the North River would be against one of ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... Jasniff!" murmured Dave. "How in the world did they get here, and what underhanded work ...
— Dave Porter and His Rivals - or, The Chums and Foes of Oak Hall • Edward Stratemeyer
... could have better reasons. First, it seemed to me that Davie had killed him. Then, when the second trial ended, I came to the conclusion—Lord help my wits—that there was some underhanded work about the succession to the property, and my doubts appeared to receive confirmation by the news of Margaret's marriage. In any case, if I turned up to give evidence, I could only have helped to hang one of my ...
— The Stowmarket Mystery - Or, A Legacy of Hate • Louis Tracy
... bald, feeble, illogical, vicious, patent sophistry—to an ancient, baseless, wearisome, ragged, unfounded, insidious, falsehood originated by women themselves, and by them insinuated, foisted, thrust, spread, and ingeniously promulgated into the ears of mankind by underhanded, secret and deceptive methods, for the purpose of augmenting, furthering, and reinforcing their own charms ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... to smooth it over!" snarled Aaron Poole. "I know you of old, Dave Porter! You are always up to some underhanded tricks. Nat knows you, too! Maybe you didn't mean to kill me, but you meant to scare me, and you took a big chance, for I might have been hit. I think I'll swear out ...
— Dave Porter at Star Ranch - Or, The Cowboy's Secret • Edward Stratemeyer
... Glendow was always an important event. Parson John was clad in his simple robes of office and read the Burial Service in a resonant, well-modulated voice. Beholding such nobleness, gentleness and dignity of his face and bearing, only the most suspicious could associate him with any underhanded dealing. What connection had such a man with the base things of life? Mounting the pulpit, he gave a short, impressive address. There was no sentiment, or flowery language. He glossed nothing over, but in a few words sketched Billy Fletcher's life, and pointed him out as ...
— The Fourth Watch • H. A. Cody
... Jack was as serious and thoughtful as his companion. He had a high sense of honor, a hatred of anything underhanded, and his conscience pricked him a little. However, it was not his fault, he told himself. Stephen Foster had no business to be churlish and ungrateful, and treat his daughter as though she were a school miss still in her teens. And what wrong ...
— In Friendship's Guise • Wm. Murray Graydon
... Belle, darling, are not Roger's friends better than those underhanded fellows who could not ...
— Without a Home • E. P. Roe
... employing dummies, or underhanded methods in dealings with selectors, but he had been through so much and had brooded so long that he had grown very hard and bitter and suspicious, and the reverse of generous—as many men do who start out in life too soft and goodhearted ...
— Children of the Bush • Henry Lawson
... first understood that a competitor had entered their field. Promptly organizing the American Speaking Telephone Company, the Western Union, with all its wealth and prestige, proceeded to destroy this insolent pigmy. Its methods of attack were unscrupulous and underhanded, the least discreditable one being the use of its political influence to prevent communities from giving franchises to the Bell Company. But this corporation mainly relied for success upon the wholesale manner in which it infringed the Bell patents. ...
— The Age of Big Business - Volume 39 in The Chronicles of America Series • Burton J. Hendrick
... ended, both boys had become so skillful in playing that the one could scarcely get the better of the other unless one in some way cheated. This caused them to try many underhanded tricks and encouraged them to bet and gamble; and in course of time they had exchanged as wagers the greater part of their simple belongings. Taking advantage of one another became a part of the game and seemingly ...
— How John Became a Man • Isabel C. Byrum
... good, hard struggle, in open daylight, by unanymous vote of all concerned—an' unconcerned, for that matter. An' my opinion is thet if they are those who have any private opinions about it, an' they didn't express 'em that day, why they ain't got no right to do it underhanded, ez I am sorry to say ...
— Sonny, A Christmas Guest • Ruth McEnery Stuart
... father scorned such proceedings. That was the reason he had lost the campaign when running for mayor against Mr. Carter in 1915. It had been an underhanded fight and almost everyone in Burmingham, regardless of party, had thought so. Mr. Carter had won the election, it is true, but it had been at the expense of the ...
— Paul and the Printing Press • Sara Ware Bassett
... cheeky,—that's what,—coming into this room without being invited. Suppose some senior should discover us!" She paused, smitten by the terror of the new thought. "Just suppose my senior should find me here! She has a horror of anything underhanded or sly. I should die of shame!" It was a genuine groan, and Berta was ...
— Beatrice Leigh at College - A Story for Girls • Julia Augusta Schwartz
... to what I have to say. I will go, but you must go too. If you want to take Juliet away from the Colonel you must do it openly. I will not abet you, nor will I encourage any underhanded proceedings." ...
— The Old Stone House and Other Stories • Anna Katharine Green
... Socialists should stand by the war. The genuine leaders of the Socialists should [see TN] the labor organizations realized immediately the policy which the dark forces were initiating. For once they came together with the liberals and even with the conservative elements, and prepared to combat this underhanded propaganda. Placards were posted and proclamations were issued by the real leaders denouncing the impostors and explaining their tactics. This underground fight among the laboring classes was of long duration, however. ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... accompanies them to the next station to bring back the horses. The ordinary charge is one keran a farsakh for each horse. It wouldn't be a Persian institution, however, if there wasn't some little underhanded arrangement on hand to mulct the traveller of something over and above the legitimate charges. Accordingly, we find two distinct measurements of distance recognized between each station—the "chapar distance" and the correct ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II. - From Teheran To Yokohama • Thomas Stevens
... reflection, and considered that the peculiar circumstances of the case justified the means she was employing, she could not feel very pleased with herself. She disliked anything underhanded; but, then, she disliked the prospect of Bridget's becoming Mrs. Faversham still more. Instead, however, of causing Colonel Faversham to hold his hand, Carrissima merely succeeded in egging him on. Rising excitedly ...
— Enter Bridget • Thomas Cobb
... uniform examination to pass. The result is a steady, logical development of the game from the inside and the maximum interest for the spectator. It is unfortunate that the public has misconstrued scouting to mean spying, for there is nothing underhanded in the scouting department of football as any big ...
— Football Days - Memories of the Game and of the Men behind the Ball • William H. Edwards
... is a cat," she declared, "a spiteful underhanded cat. After all I have done for her! Why, she never would have been vice-president if it had not been for me! And just because she heard that I said something—something about her that was perfectly true, even if I did not say it—she broke out in committee and said things to ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... understand the stern moral honesty of the man under consideration. Roosevelt believed in upholding William McKinley, and had said so, and it was no more possible for him to seek the Presidential nomination by an underhanded trick than it was for President McKinley to do an equally base thing when he was asked to allow his name to be mentioned at the time he had pledged himself to support John Sherman.[2] Both men were of equal loyalty, and the word of each was as good ...
— American Boy's Life of Theodore Roosevelt • Edward Stratemeyer
... brave girl, Miss Thurston, to take your sister's trouble on your own shoulders. I am very glad that you saw fit to tell me what you have. I hope you will forgive me for my seeming cruelty, but I simply cannot endure anything dishonorable or underhanded. To show you that I believe what you have told me, and to prove to you that your confidence in me is well founded, I propose to help you out of ...
— The Automobile Girls At Washington • Laura Dent Crane
... Queen's College arrangements in Ireland. It was a supplemental charter really changing the whole constitution of the thing, and he tried to carry his point by a dodge. I did not care much about the matter one way or the other, but I thought his underhanded trickery unworthy a statesman, or any other man. I tried not to believe it; that is, I would rather not have believed it. I had a sort of feeling that it couldn't be. But it was so. Then his pamphlet about Vaticanism, in which he said no Roman ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)
... old Father Time. The hour-glass puzzled me no little though. The man has cotton batting wings. One of them is a little wabbly, but what can you expect from Caledonia? They're always trying to butt the bull off the bridge. They're jealous of our town. Oh, they stooped to all the mean, underhanded tricks you ever heard of to get the canning factory to go to their place instead of here. But we know a thing or two ourselves. Yes, we got the canning factory, all right, ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood
... upon this matter as a personal affair, either of mine or of any of the other prefects, but to consider only the welfare of the school. I say again that if Ronleigh is to retain its reputation, and be kept from going to the dogs, it's high time these underhanded bits of foul play like the reading-room row and this attack on Browse were put a stop to; and I beg you all to join in taking measures to prevent anything of the kind occurring again ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... it may not be. I have never felt quite right about it. There have been times when I felt real squeamish—and a bit underhanded, you might say. On the other hand, I submit that it was not altogether reprehensible on my part to air them occasionally—and to see that ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon
... too. She was doing this to save the life of a friend, but it was impossible not to feel a sense of treachery toward this other friend whose approval was so much more vital to her happiness. Would Jack think that she had conspired against his honor in an underhanded way? He was a man of strict principles. Would he cast her off and have no more ...
— A Man Four-Square • William MacLeod Raine
... felt, not always good; yet there was not a teacher on the premises who did not like him. Intellectually they were forced to own that he was demoralizing. He was, moreover, a disturber of the social order. But his pranks were, after all, pure mischief and never malicious or underhanded. With a boy like Bob Carlton as a roommate and drag anchor the principal argued he could not ...
— The Story of Sugar • Sara Ware Bassett
... Dinsmore had almost unbounded influence over his father, who was very proud of him; the old gentleman also utterly despised everything mean and underhanded, and upon being made acquainted by Horace with Arthur's misdemeanors he inflicted upon him as severe a punishment as ...
— Elsie Dinsmore • Martha Finley
... by, if not angry at, what he termed the underhanded lying of the opposition, drove home for luncheon, and found his wife and her mother in a state of high dudgeon. They had ...
— The Booming of Acre Hill - And Other Reminiscences of Urban and Suburban Life • John Kendrick Bangs
... never occurred to her to doubt what Bessie said. Somehow, people seemed always to be ready to believe her. And, remembering the way Holmes had declared that he had spoken with Miss Mercer, Dolly began to realize that Bessie was right, and that there must be something underhanded about Holmes. Bessie, although she was sorry that Dolly had to be frightened in such a fashion, was glad of the fact just the same, because it meant that she could depend upon Dolly now to obey her, no matter what she told ...
— The Camp Fire Girls on the Farm - Or, Bessie King's New Chum • Jane L. Stewart
... non-payment of the maturing interest upon the State debt, and the repudiation of the debt itself. This was a time which indeed tried the souls of men. Mr. Kelley went to New York, and such was the confidence reposed in his integrity and practical ability—notwithstanding the underhanded and atrocious means employed by the repudiators, to defeat his object—that he was enabled to raise in that city (where no one could be found willing to loan money to the sovereign State of Ohio) nearly a quarter of a million of dollars on his own personal security, and thus by his generous ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin
... very much as if they had fixed it up between them," continued Grace. "I'm sorry about the effigy, but I won't stand that kind of favoritism. It's mean and underhanded." ...
— Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School - The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls • Jessie Graham Flower
... indifferent as to the particular kinds of dresses That the clergyman wore at church where he used to go to pray, And whatever he did in the way of relieving a chap's distresses, He always did in a nasty, sneaking, underhanded, hole-and-corner ...
— More Bab Ballads • W. S. Gilbert
... There was a miserable silence, and then: "It isn't the thing itself, you know, so much as the rotten— underhanded advantage you took. If he'd been a stranger, now— ...
— The Ne'er-Do-Well • Rex Beach
... so absolutely underhanded that, as an honest man, I must refuse all further dealing with you. I am, as I said before, accustomed to ...
— Three Dramas - The Editor—The Bankrupt—The King • Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson
... itself that forces us to use these underhanded means? What would have happened if I had not acted secretly? Everybody would have wanted to have a hand in the undertaking; the whole thing would have been divided up, mismanaged and bungled. There is not a single man ...
— Pillars of Society • Henrik Ibsen
... taint, a doubt of his honor, ruins him; and there cannot be a more honorable body of men in the world, and never was, than the fair majority of the bar. The habit of contesting in open court, in the face of the world, engenders an honorable, manly highmindedness, free from the underhanded jealousy and petty wars of the doctors. If a man lies, or is mean, he is pretty certain to be detected and exposed at once. A lawyer cannot afford to lie and be mean. And besides, I have observed that there is really no healthy, manly development of intellect, without a ...
— Bart Ridgeley - A Story of Northern Ohio • A. G. Riddle
... ain't. I know you wouldn't fool with me, any more than I would with you; and that's what I tell 'Manda Grier, I'll leave it to her if I don't. I don't care who you go with, and I hain't, never since that first time. I know you ain't goin' to do anything underhanded. Don't ...
— The Minister's Charge • William D. Howells
... Under indictment for attempted murder and for highway robbery, this man was not satisfied with having tried to kill from ambush the best friend Alaska had ever known. In every report that he sent to Washington he was dealing underhanded blows at the prosperity of Alaska. He was a snake in the grass, and as such every decent man ought to ...
— The Yukon Trail - A Tale of the North • William MacLeod Raine
... deep in his pockets, stared out among the skyscrapers and gave way to a fit of remorse. It was foreign to his nature to do petty underhanded tricks. Grand strategy—yes. At that he was an adept, and not the shiftiest, craftiest schemes he had ever devised had given him a moment's uneasiness. But to be driving a ten-dollar-a-week typewriter out of her job—to be maneuvering to deprive her of a for her ...
— The Grain Of Dust - A Novel • David Graham Phillips
... heeding the question. "I know ALL. I have for some time suspected that something underhanded was going on. Now I know what it is that has been so carefully concealed from me! I have long objected to your associates, ...
— Wired Love - A Romance of Dots and Dashes • Ella Cheever Thayer
... eyes in place of gratitude? "Well, well!" he concluded, "this marrying is a risky experiment at best, but Tom Watterly's talk and her manner seemed to shut me up to it. I was made to feel that I couldn't go on in any other way; and I haven't done anything underhanded or wrong, as I see, for the chance of going on. If I hadn't become such a heathen I should say there was a Providence in it, but I don't know what to think about such things any more. Time'll show, and the prospect is better than it has been yet. She'll never be sorry if she carries out the ...
— He Fell in Love with His Wife • Edward P. Roe
... the head of his cane against the door of Mrs. Chowles's blinking old house; but he was too much at home to think of waiting for a reply, and had gone through the ceremony only for the purpose of removing from his entrance all appearance of being underhanded or surreptitious; for no sooner had he knocked with one hand, than with the other he raised the latch and walked without hesitation toward the ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various
... him, the cow! He can't sling me fair work, not the best day ever he saw. He can't buck," he added, in tones of the deepest contempt, "and he won't try when I've got a fair hold of him; only goes at it underhanded. It's up to me to give him a hidin' next time I ride ...
— An Outback Marriage • Andrew Barton Paterson
... Comanche half-breed named Hank Stiger. Stiger had been accused of the crime by Mr. Radbury, but had pleaded his innocence, and the pioneer had dropped the matter rather than have more trouble, since it was known that the half-breed and the Comanches in the neighbourhood were closely related in all their underhanded work. In those days it was no uncommon thing to hang a horse thief, but had this happened to Hank Stiger, it is likely that the Comanches under Bison Head, who had their hunting-grounds in the Cross Timbers, so-called, ...
— For the Liberty of Texas • Edward Stratemeyer
... openly gone to save Almo in your full regalia and in your own carriage, or your own litter, with your lictor before you; but that while the fact of your being out of Rome all night in a litter is damning enough, the appearance of duplicity and underhanded secrecy given to the proceeding by your being disguised in another woman's clothing and carried in a borrowed litter makes terribly ...
— The Unwilling Vestal • Edward Lucas White
... the enemy are left to pillage the vessels that they seize from those who come to this city, especially those from China. It is even asserted, although I do not know whether it is true, that he makes underhanded efforts in the midst of all these braveries, by the hands of certain persons who are masters of his secrets, so that the city may come out and disapprove of, and protest against, his going [against the enemy], and may inform many of the ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XX, 1621-1624 • Various
... St. Petersburg, where his martial bearing and his well-known bravery had given him a sort of popularity in society, which, on the other hand, had great disdain for Gounsovski, the head of the Secret Police, who was known to be capable of anything underhanded and had been accused of sometimes playing into the hands of the Nihilists, whom he disguised as agents-provocateurs, without anybody really doubting it, and he had to fight ...
— The Secret of the Night • Gaston Leroux
... it's perfectly brutal to be underhanded. But we're leaving for home tomorrow; I couldn't ...
— The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith • Arthur Wing Pinero
... Stacey; "wot ef I refoose? Wot ef I say I don't allow any man, or any bank, or any compromise, to take up my quo'r'lls? Wot ef I say that low-down and mean as them Harrisons is, they don't begin to be ez mean, ez low-down, ez underhanded, ez sneakin' ez that yer compromise? Wot ef I say that ef that's the kind o' hogwash that law and snivelization offers me for peace and quietness, I'll take the fightin', and the law-breakin', and the sheriff, and all h-ll for his posse instead? ...
— Cressy • Bret Harte
... forward to, and it was just as well to be on the safe side. Just in case the God of War had managed to get one or two other Gods on his side, Forrester had talked to Diana and Venus, and had their agreement to step in on his side if things got rough, or if Mars tried to pull anything underhanded. ...
— Pagan Passions • Gordon Randall Garrett
... always been as neighborly as I might wish, you must listen to me this time. I have always disliked Kari; I would never have hired that man. Believe me, there is something underhanded about him. Nobody knows him, and no one has heard of his people. It is as if he had shot up out of the ground. The only thing you know about him is that his name is Kari, and ...
— Modern Icelandic Plays - Eyvind of the Hills; The Hraun Farm • Jhann Sigurjnsson
... palm down, on the edge of his desk. His solitaire threw off actual sparks of brilliancy. "I can crush every one of you," he said, as he shoved his hand along the edge of the desk toward Eleanore. "That boy out there, your brother, is an underhanded sharper. If I want to I can make him turn a somersault, believe me." He shoved his fat hand a little farther along, as if it were some dangerous engine and his solitaire a signal lamp. "I can make the whole pack of you dance ...
— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann
... very good idea may be obtained of the manner in which these taaps are used, by referring to Captain Lyon's drawing of the Esquimaux sledges at page 290 of Parry's Second Voyage: the natives of King George's Sound however hold the knife underhanded, and cut upwards.) ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King
... star-crossed, fated to be foes, and whenever they met there was blood, and never was quarter asked nor quarter expected. How could it have been otherwise? Ku Sui controlled the isuan drug trade, and Carse was against it, as he was against everything underhanded and unclean; Ku Sui had tricked and, by a single deed, driven Carse's loved comrade, Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow, from his honored position on Earth, and Carse was sworn to bring Ku Sui to Earth to clear the old scientist's name. Either of these alone was enough to seal the feud, but there was ...
— The Passing of Ku Sui • Anthony Gilmore
... old friend. In the present instance—for his own sake, for the sake of Lucy and Lucy's father—he told Graham the whole story of Bishop Pendle's presumed guilt; of Baltic's mission to disprove it; and of Cargrim's underhanded doings. Graham listened to the details in silence, and contented himself with a grim smile or two when Cargrim's treachery was touched upon. When in possession of the facts, he commented firstly on the behaviour of ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... made her inferior to the most active and resolute man of the party. Even Catharine de' Medici, who had hated her with all her cowardly heart, made some show of admiring her virtues, now that she was no longer formidable and her straightforward policy had ceased to thwart the underhanded and shifting diplomacy in which the queen mother delighted. Yet the report gained currency that Jeanne had been poisoned at Catharine's instigation. She had, it was said, bought gloves of Monsieur Rene, the queen mother's perfumer[888]—a man who boasted of his acquaintance with the Italian ...
— History of the Rise of the Huguenots - Volume 2 • Henry Baird
... sleet; and when it had been thus experimentally shown, under unfavorable conditions, how easy it was to do in one day the task for which the army officers were allowed three days, all open objection ceased. But some bureau chiefs still did as much underhanded work against the order as they dared, and it was often difficult to reach them. In the Marine Corps Captain Leonard, who had lost an arm at Tientsin, with two of his lieutenants did the fifty miles in one day; for they were vigorous young men, who laughed at the idea of treating a ...
— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt
... UNDERHANDED. This word, though found in the dictionaries, is a vulgarism, and as such is to be avoided. The proper word is underhand. An underhand, ...
— The Verbalist • Thomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)
... Soon after he was 9, when both his parents were already dead, he forged a school certificate and was felt to be a bad influence in the home of his guardian. About that time he also stole money from pockets on a number of occasions. In school he was regarded as an undesirable pupil on account of his underhanded behavior, and one teacher who had observed him for long wrote that he showed marked inclination towards lying. At the time he was 15, he was somewhat retarded in school life, but was told he had to decide upon an occupation. After a stormy period he announced he would become a gardener. ...
— Pathology of Lying, Etc. • William and Mary Healy
... man says and does, he becomes; and what he has become, he says and does. An honest and clean-minded man instinctively does what is kind and honorable. But when a man for years has gone for profit and selfish power, you can trust him as a general thing to do what is underhanded and mean. Since selfish ability elbows its way to controlling positions in business, politics, and society, the character reactions of such men are a force with which the Kingdom of God must reckon. They are the personal equipment of the ...
— The Social Principles of Jesus • Walter Rauschenbusch
... is Gordon's right bower. I think he calls him his secretary; anyhow, he does Gordon's dirty work and they're thicker than fleas. First you come along and steal me, underhanded, then you grab his pet engineer before he has a chance to hire him back again. Just to top off the evening you publicly brand his confidential understrapper as a card cheat and thump ...
— The Iron Trail • Rex Beach
... here, too, and I'm not afraid!" And Patty raised her head defiantly. "Father can unmarry us, that's why we acted in this miserable, secret, underhanded way. Somehow, though I haven't seen Mark since we went to Allentown, I am braver than I was last week, for now I've got somebody to take my part. I've a good mind to go upstairs and put on my gold ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin
... which speak volumes indeed. These letters, too, bespeak the character of the man. They are not open, fervid, eloquent epistles, breathing nothing but the language of affectionate attachment. They are covert, sly, underhanded communications, but, fortunately, far more conclusive than if couched in the most glowing language and the most poetic imagery—letters that must be viewed with a cautious and suspicious eye—letters that were evidently intended at the time, by Pickwick, to mislead and delude any third parties ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... as they are called, are the most selfish, the most corrupt, the most vulgar, the most ignorant, the most illiberal, and the most time-serving race that are to be found in Europe. It is said that a Bristol man is known all over the world for his underhanded, tricking, overreaching, sharper-like dealing; he is described to be exactly the reverse of a Liverpool merchant; and it is added, (and the sarcasm is not too bitter) that you may know a Bristol merchant, by his always sleeping with ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 3 • Henry Hunt
... of the mistress and her adherents were at all diminished. They were even more active than ever since the marriage of the Count de Provence, who, in an underhanded way, instigated his wife to show countenance to Madame du Barri, and who allowed, if he did not encourage, the mistress and her friends to speak slightingly of the dauphiness in his presence. But, as Marie Antoinette ...
— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge
... Bernd! Good-bye, August! Good-bye, Rosie! [To AUGUST.] What's wrong?—August, don't be showin' off. 'Tis all well! I'm willin'! You'll not see me again! But you—you've got reason enough to be grateful to me. You've always been an underhanded kind o' crittur! But I've given my consent to let things be! I've given my consent an' everything can ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume II • Gerhart Hauptmann
... Marwitz commanded, adjusting the sash of her tea-gown. "I shall see Karen. The deplorable misunderstanding of last night shall be set right. Her behaviour has been undignified and underhanded; but I misunderstood her, and, pierced to the heart by the treachery of a man I trusted, I spoke wildly, without thought. Karen will ...
— Tante • Anne Douglas Sedgwick
... haste to get hold of the lands, the people's Legislature would divide them out or sell them to the Federal Government. So they formed another conspiracy, and this time they laid their plans very deep. Acting on the principle that every man has his price, they managed, by bribery and other underhanded schemes, to win the sympathy and support of some of the most prominent men in the State,—men whose names seemed to be far above suspicion. Some of the highest judges lent their aid to the land grabbers. ...
— Stories Of Georgia - 1896 • Joel Chandler Harris
... Simon!' said Gabriel to himself. 'That's bad. What in the name of wonder does he expect the girl to say, that I always catch him listening when SHE speaks, and never at any other time! A bad habit, Sim, a sneaking, underhanded way. Ah! you may hammer, but you won't beat that out of me, if you work at it till your ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens
... well, and my experience with and observation of them has taught me that any girl who behaves herself when in their company will always be treated with respect. There is some manhood about them in that way. But those fine city dudes have such a polished, underhanded, deep, sly, foxy way of attaining their ends. Dr. Lacy's girls told me that those fine, city young gentlemen loved nothing better than to get acquainted with some pretty, young, green, innocent girl and ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge
... are fair in war." Though ingenuity may properly tax itself to produce death-dealing instruments, underhanded means, such as poisoning springs or spreading a plague, are condemned; nor is it now regarded as consistent with right for a civilized nation to employ against another, persons accustomed to an ...
— Studies in Civics • James T. McCleary
... his better judgment, he would willingly have given his daughter to the care of one who he knew would carefully shield her from the storms of life. It was not he, but the cold, proud mother, who so haughtily refused William's request, accusing him of taking underhanded means ...
— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes |
