The closed-door policy, he liked to explain, kept the cats out of his hair and the cathairs out of his typewriter.

[…] I was an occasional dram-drinker at their saloon. I was never imposed upon by them with bad liquor, nor in any manner cheated there. I did not learn they kept loaded dice, marked cards, or any back-room deadfall—to rake the pockets of fuddled or drugged customers.

Then, through a cautiously lifted chick, the old scene stands revealed […]

If the first term of an arithmetic sequence is 3 and the common difference is 13, then the fourth term is 42.