had hurriedly written these words: "For God's sake, read the
letter I send to you, and do something about it immediately!"

I looked at the letter. It assumed to be written by a gentleman in New
York. Only the day before, he had, by the merest accident, seen the
advertisement for John Jago cut out of a newspaper and pasted into a
book of "curiosities" kept by a friend. Upon this he wrote to Morwick
Farm to say that he had seen a man exactly answering to the description
of John Jago, but bearing another name, working as a clerk in a
merchant's office in Jersey City. Having time to spare before the mail
went out, he had returned to the office to take another look at the man
before he posted his letter. To his surprise, he was informed that the
clerk had not appeared at his desk that day. His employer had sent to
his lodgings, and had been informed that he had suddenly packed up his
hand-bag after reading the newspaper at breakfast; had paid his rent
honestly, and had gone away, nobody knew where!

It was late in the evening when I read these lines. I had time for
reflection before it would be necessary for me to act.

Assuming the letter to be genuine, and adopting Naomi's explanation of
the motive which had led John Jago to absent himself secretly from the
farm, I reached the conclusion that the search for him might be
usefully limited to Narrabee and to the surrounding neighborhood.

The newspaper at his breakfast had no doubt given him his first
information of the "finding" of the grand jury, and of the trial to
follow. It was in my experience of human nature that he should venture
back to Narrabee under these circumstances, and under the influence of
his infatuation for Naomi. More than this, it was again in my
experience, I am sorry to say, that he should attempt to make the
critical position of Ambrose a means of extorting Naomi's consent to
listen favorably to his suit. Cruel indifference to the injury and the
suffering which his sudden absence might inflict on others was plainly
implied in his secret withdrawal from the farm. The same cruel
indifference, pushed to a further extreme, might well lead him to press
his proposals privately on Naomi, and to fix her acceptance of them as
the price to be paid for saving her cousin's life.

To these conclusions I arrived after much thinking. I had determined,
on Naomi's account, to clear the matter up; but it is only candid to
add that my doubts of John Jago's existenc