When he could he shut himself in his room. He had experienced a
day of maddening anxiety, he had not slept at all the previous
night, in mind and body he was worn out; and now he was plunged
into the thick of this sensation. He must keep control of
himself, for every word he said would be remembered. In the
present there was sympathy for him, but sooner or later people
would return to their sordid unemotional judgments.
He sought to forecast the happenings of the next few hours.
Murrell's friends would break jail for him, that was a foregone
conclusion, but the insurrection he had planned was at an end.
Hues had dealt its death blow. Moreover, though the law might be
impotent to deal with Murrell, he could not hope to escape the
vengeance of the powerful class he had plotted to destroy; he
would have to quit the country. Ware gloated in this idea of
craven flight. Thank God, he had seen the last of him!
But as always his thoughts came back to Betty. Slosson would
wait at the Hicks' place for the man Murrell had promised him,
and failing this messenger, for the signal fire, but there would
be neither; and Slosson would be left to determine his own course
of action. Ware felt certain that he would wait through the
night, but as sure as the morning broke, if no word had reached
him, he would send one of his men across the bayou, who must
learn of Murrell's arrest, escape, flight--for in Ware's mind
these three events were indissolubly associated.
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