236

PART III

I SPITE HOUSE 253

II THE IMPATIENT CHAPTER 277

III RESCUE 290

IV AT HUNDRED MILE HOUSE 298

V THE CARGADOR 316

VI THE BLACK NIGHT 334

EPILOGUE 349

TO PERSONS WHO HAVE NAMESAKES IN THIS BOOK

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

Except the Bear, who is no more, the characters appearing in this volume
wish me to say that their breaches of etiquette, homicides, etc., are
all original sins. Their infirmities of body, soul, and spirit are their
own, not mimicry of yours, not a caricature of your friend, your
acquaintance, of your second-hand acquaintance, or anybody you have
heard about, or even of some mere celebrity. If we hold up a mirror, it
is to human nature, not to you.

The characters wish me to tell you that they are all Imaginary Persons,
and therefore very sensitive. The persons of a drama are protected by
footlights, by the stage doorkeeper, not to mention grease paint and
scalps by an eminent artiste; but the characters in a novel are thrust
defenseless into a rude world, with many reporters about. In a page
fright, worse even than stage fright, their only comfort is that absence
of body which is their alternative to your great gift,--presence of
mind.

So they make their bow under assumed names. There we come to the point.
The proper names were all dealt out to worldly grasping persons, and not
one was left unclaimed. The name department is like a cloak-room when
the guests have departed, a train from which all passengers have
alighted, an office on Christmas day. Can you blame the characters in
fiction who come after you, if they assume the noblest names, such as
Smith, and try to be worthy of their borrowed plumes? Surely you would
not have them wear a numeral such as the number of your house, or
telephone.

The chances are that they give you no offense. Suppose that gentlemen
named Jesse Smith number one in each million of English-speaking people,
there would be one hundred in North America, half of them adults, with a
moiety in wedlock, and, of these twenty-five, a hundredth part may be
stockm