It was strange Hugh did not improve faster, the old doctor thought.
There was something weighing on his mind, he said, something which kept
him awake, and the kind man set himself to divine the cause. Thinking at
last he had done so, he said to him one day, the last before the sale: "My boy, you don't get on for worrying about something. I don't pretend
to second sight, but I b'lieve I've got on the right track. It's my
pesky bill. I know it's big, for I've been here every day this going on
three months, but I'll cut it down to the last cent, see if I don't; and
if it's an object, I'll wait ten years, so chirk up a bit," and wringing
his hand, the well-meaning doctor hurried off, leaving Hugh alone with
his sad thoughts.
It was not so much the bill which troubled him--it was Rocket, and the
feeling sure that he should never own him again. Heretofore there had at
intervals been a faint hope in his heart that by some means he might
redeem him, but that was over now. The sale of Colonel Tiffton's effects
occurred upon the morrow, and money stood waiting for Rocket, while
Harney, with a fiendish, revengeful disposition, which was determined to
gain its point at last, had been heard to say that "rather than lose the
horse or let it pass back to its former owner, he believed he would give
a thousand dollars."
That settled it, Hugh had no thousand dollars; he had not even ten, and
with a moan of pain, he tried to shut out Rocket from his mind. And this
it was which kept him so nervous and restless, dreading yet longing for
the eventful day, and feeling glad when at last he could say-"To-morrow is the sale."
The next morning was cold and chilly, making Hugh shiver as he waited
for the footstep which he had learned to know so well. She had not come
to see him the previous night, and he waited for her anxiously now,
feeling sure that on this day of all others she would stay with him.
How, then, was he disappointed when at last she came to him, cloaked and
hooded as for a ride.
"Are you going out to-day again?" he asked, his tone that of a pleading
child.
"It does not seem right to leave you alone, I know," she said, "but poor
Ellen needs me sadly, and I promised to be there."
"At Mosside, with all those rough men, oh, Alice, don't go!" and Hugh
grasped the little hand.