had been packed up the sitting room struck him as looking a little bare as he entered it is mr out he asked the who brought up his yes sir he was called out by a message he left a note for you on the desk went to the desk and found it it contained only a few lines everything is prepared for you the audience will be the best you have had at any time i have been sent for by the man he is ill of and wishes to deliver some letters to me i will be with you before you go on the platform since he had left washington had heard from but once and then but briefly he had felt that his dark mood was upon him and this reference to letters recalled the fact is the little man with the cattle claim he commented to himself he comes from the neighbourhood of the cross roads what letters could he have to hand over and he began to dress wondering had spent a sleepless night he could not sleep because his last interview with had driven him hard even though he had been able to promise him the required five hundred dollars he also could not sleep because the air of the city had been full of talk about the in connection with the de claim promising outlook of the de claim over the reports he had heard he had raged almost with tears the is he had said they re an it gives em a pull even if they was an a pore man works hard an ain t but a honest farmer an a sound union man ain t got no show ef i d been a i could got pulled wires fur me but i t but my loyal union principles i ain t no an i never aimed to be none the bitterness of his nervous envy would have kept him awake if he had had no other reason for being disturbed but most of all he was sleepless because he was desperately ill and in danger he knew nothing of cold and weeks of semi starvation anxiety excitement and garments had done the little man to death and he lay raging with fever and with pain at each breath tossing and gasping and burning but thinking only of and the herds and the scraps of paper which were to bring him five hundred dollars he was physically wretched but even while he was with fits of and with pain it did not occur to him to think that he was in danger he was too wholly absorbed in other thoughts the only danger he recognised was the danger that there might be some failure in his plans � that might give him up � that the parson might back out of his bargain that after all letters save by a man s christian name were not substantial evidence perhaps he would not come at all perhaps he would leave the city perhaps if he came he would refuse to give more than half or quarter the sum asked then would throw him over � he knew in connection with the de claim would throw him over he uttered a small cry like a tortured cat i know he ll do it he said i seen it in his eye yesterday when he let out on me an said he was a sick of the business i shed kept my mouth shut i d said too much an it made him mad he ll throw me over monday ef i don t take him the money on sunday he ate nothing all through the day but lay waiting for the passing of the hours he had calculated as to which post would bring the letter from he had written to tell her of the hiding place in which he had kept the bits of paper safe and dry through all the years she was to them in a stout envelope and send them to him through the long dragging day he lay alone burning gasping fighting for his breath in the attacks of which seemed to tear his lungs asunder there was a clock in a room below whose striking he could hear each hour each time it struck he felt as if weeks elapsed sometimes it was months he had begun to be and to think queer things once or twice he heard a man talking in a wail and after a few minutes that it was himself and that he did not know what he had said though he knew he had been arguing with who was proving to him that his claim was too rotten to have a ghost of a chance by the time the afternoon post arrived he was semi and did not know how it happened that he at last found himself holding s letter in his hand he laughed when he opened it it was all right there were the two sheets of paper � small sheets written close and in a peculiar hand he had often studied the handwriting and believed if he had seen it again he should know it it was in connection with the de claim small but strong and characteristic though that was not what he had called it ef more time an could worked it out more � an got him to write down � i could more of a hold he said but wouldn t give me no time the post arrived earlier than he had expected it and this gave him time to lie and fret and listen again for the striking of the clock in the room downstairs the waiting became too long and as his fever increased he became impatient and could not restrain himself to lie and listen for his visitor s footsteps upon the stairs � to lie until seven o clock � 