ed I'd slip in through the side gate, get it,
and take it home to camp and put it in oil. The window sash was jammed,
I remember, and I hadn't been able to get it up more than a couple of
inches to paint the runs of the sash. The grass grew up close under
the window, and I slipped in quietly. I noticed the sash was still up
a couple of inches. Just as I grabbed the brush I heard low voices
inside--Ruth Wilson's and Jack Drew's--in her room.

"The surprise sent about a pint of beer up into my throat in a lump. I
tip-toed away out of there. Just as I got clear of the gate I saw the
banker being helped home by a couple of cronies.

"I went home to the camp and turned in, but I couldn't sleep. I lay
think--think--thinking, till I thought all the drink out of my head. I'd
brought a bottle of ale home to last over Sunday, and I drank that. It
only made matters worse. I didn't know how I felt--I--well, I felt as
if I was as good a man as Jack Drew--I--you see I've--you might think it
soft--but I loved that girl, not as I've been gone on other girls, but
in the old-fashioned, soft, honest, hopeless, far-away sort of way; and
now, to tell the straight truth, I thought I might have had her. You
lose a thing through being too straight or sentimental, or not having
enough cheek; and another man comes along with more brass in his blood
and less sentimental rot and takes it up--and the world respects him;
and you feel in your heart that you're a weaker man than he is. Why,
part of the time I must have felt like a man does when a better man
runs away with his wife. But I'd drunk a lot, and was upset and
lonely-feeling that night.

"Oh, but Redclay had a tremendous sensation next day! Jack Drew, of all
the men in the world, had been caught in the act of robbing the bank.
According to Browne's account in court and in the newspapers, he
returned home that night at about twelve o'clock (which I knew was a
lie, for I saw him being helped home nearer two) and immediately retired
to rest (on top of the quilt, boots and all, I suppose). Some time
before daybreak he was roused by a fancied noise (I suppose it was his
head swelling); he rose, turned up a night lamp (he hadn't lit it,
I'll swear), and went through the dining-room passage and office to
investigate (for whisky and water). He saw that the doors and windows
were secure, returned to bed, and fell asleep again.

"There is something in a deaf person's being roused easily. I know the