He had bribed her friends so that
they were silent; but I overbribed them with the last money I had, and
I followed him and my wife on foot. I never found them, nor did I ever
know why she had deserted me for him. If I had only known the reason; if
I could have been told of my fault; if she had only written to say that
she was tired of me; that I was too old, too rough for her soft ways,--I
think I could have borne the heavy stroke the villain had dealt me
better. The end of my search was that I dropped down in the streets of
Liverpool, whither I thought I had tracked them, and was carried to
the hospital with brain-fever upon me. Two months afterward I came out
cured, and the sense of my loss was deadened within me, so that I
could go to sea again, which I did, before the mast, under the name of
Jackson, in a bark that traded to this coast here." And the old sailor
rose to his feet and turned abruptly away, leaving me sitting alone.
I saw that he did not wish to be followed, so I stayed where I was and
watched the gray twilight creep over the face of the sea, and the night
quickly succeed to it.
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