Jeff a letter of cheerless instruction,
reminded him of the fulfillment of her worst prophecies regarding him,
but begged him, in her absence, to rely solely upon the "Word." "For the
sperrit killeth," she added vaguely. Whether this referred figuratively
to Jeff's business, he did not stop to consider. He was more interested
in the information that the Mayfields had removed to the "Summit Hotel"
two days after he had left. "She allowed it was for her health's sake,"
continued Aunt Sally, "but I reckon it's another name for one of them
city fellers who j'ined their party and is keepin' company with her now.
They talk o' property and stocks and sich worldly trifles all the time,
and it's easy to see their idees is set together. It's allowed at the
Forks that Mr. Mayfield paid Parker's bill for you. I said it wasn't so,
fur ye'd hev told me; but if it is so, Jeff, and ye didn't tell me, it
was for only one puppos, and that wos that Mayfield bribed ye to break
off with his darter! That was WHY you went off so suddent, 'like a thief
in the night,' and why Miss Mayfield never let on a word about you after
you left--not even your name!"

Jeff crushed the letter between his fingers, and, going behind the bar,
poured out half a glass of stimulant and drank it. It was not the first
time since he came to the "Lone Star House" that he had found this easy
relief from his present thought; it was not the first time that he had
found this dangerous ally of sure and swift service in bringing him up
or down to that level of his dreary, sodden guests, so necessary to his
trade. Jeff had not the excuse of the inborn drunkard's taste. He was
impulsive and extreme. At the end of the four weeks he came out on
the porch one night as Bill drew up. "You must take me from this place
to-night," he said, in a broken voice scarce like his own. "When we're
on the road we can arrange matters, but I must go to-night."

"But where?" asked Bill.

"Anywhere! Only I must go from here. I shall go if I have to walk."

Bill looked hard at the young man. His face was flushed, his eyes
blood-shot, and his hands trembled, not with excitement, but with a
vacant, purposeless impotence. Bill looked a little relieved. "You've
been drinking too hard. Jeff, I thought better of ye than that!"

"I think better of MYSELF than that," said Jeff, with a certain wild,
half-hysterical laugh, "and that is why I want to go. Don't be alarmed,
Bill," he added; "I have stren