Page:Curwood--The Courage of Captain Plum.djvu/337

 was white. I was like an old man. My people had found me and they told me that I had been mad for three years, Nat—mad—mad—mad! and that a great surgeon had operated on my head, where they struck me—and brought me back to reason. Nat—Nat—" He strained to raise himself, gasping excitedly. "God, I was like you then, Nat! I went back to fight for my Jean. She was gone. Nobody knew me, for I was an old man. I hunted from settlement to settlement. In my madness I became a Mormon, for vengeance—in hope of finding her. I was rich, and I became powerful. I was made an elder because of my gold. Then I found—"

A moan trembled on the old man's lips.

"—they had forced her to marry—the son of a Mormon—"

He stopped, and for a moment his eyes seemed filling with the glazed shadows of death. He roused himself almost fiercely.

"But he loved my Jean, Nat—he loved her