peak, suh, I knows a

seemingly vanished from Beaver County. Fetters's lieutenants were
active in their search for him, but sought in vain. _Twenty-eight_ Ben
Dudley awoke the morning after the assembly ball, with a violent
headache and a sense of extreme depression, which was not relieved by
the sight of his reflection in the looking-glass of the bureau in the
hotel bedroom where he found himself. One of his eyes was bloodshot, and
surrounded by a wide area of discolouration, and he was conscious of
several painful contusions on other portions of his body. His clothing
was badly disordered and stained with blood; and, all in all, he was
scarcely in a condition to appear in public. He made such a toilet as he
could, and, anxious to avoid observation, had his horse brought from the
livery around to the rear door of the hotel, and left for Mink Run by
the back streets. He did not return to town for a week, and when he made
his next appearance there, upon strictly a business visit, did not go
near the Treadwells', and wore such a repellent look that no one
ventured to speak to him about his encounter with Fetters and McRae. He
was humiliated and ashamed, and angry with himself and all the world. He
had lost Graciella already; any possibility that might have remained of
regaining her affection, was destroyed by his having made her name the
excuse for a barroom broil. His uncle was not well, and with the decline
of his health, his monomania grew more acute and more absorbing, and he
spent most of his time in the search for t