Good-by." He tore himself from Brown's grasp, and leaped down the stairs like a deer.

At the stable door he collared the half-sleeping hostler and backed him against the wall.

"Saddle my horse in two minutes, or I'll--" The ellipsis was frightfully suggestive.
"The missis said you was to have the buggy," stammered the man.
"Damn the buggy!" The horse was saddled as fast as the nervous hands of the astounded hostler could manipulate buckle and strap.
"Is anything up, Mr.Hamlin ?" said the man, who, like all his class, admired the elan of his fiery patron, and was really concerned in his welfare.
"Stand aside!" The man fell back.

With an oath, a bound, and clatter, Jack was into the road.

In another moment, to the man's half-awakened eyes, he was but a moving cloud of dust in the distance, toward which a star just loosed from its brethren was trailing a stream of fire.
But early that morning the dwellers by the Wingdam turnpike, miles away, heard a voice, pure as a skylark's, singing afield.