WAYS THAT ARE DARK.


As we know, Sedgwick went first with Browning to the hamlet in Devonshire
where Jack's early home had been. Browning was recognized, of course. An
old friend of Hamlin's was at the church, spoke to Jack, and witnessed
Sedgwick's encounter with the bull. He knew under what circumstances
young Browning left home, and so on that Sunday evening he wrote to
Hamlin that his step-son was in Devonshire, told him of the episode at the
church, and informed the old man that the companion of his son, though a
quiet and refined-appearing man enough, must be a prize-fighter in
disguise. He further stated that Jack had told him that he and his friend
had been working in the mines at Virginia City, Nevada, for three or four
years. He added the strong suspicion that the complexion of the men
indicated that they had not been in the mines at all. (His idea of a
miner was a coal-miner, and not one from the Comstock mine, where there
is no coal dust, and where the thermometer indicates a tropical climate
always.)

This letter reached Hamlin early on Monday. Being a half banker and half
broker himself, he turned at once to the page in the bank directory,
giving American banks and their London connections. He found the Nevada
branch bank and California branch bank of Virginia City, and what banks
in London they drew upon, and hastened first to the Nevada bank's London
agency. He could obtain no news there. Then he sought the other, and
knowing the management, he explained to one of the directors that his
son was on the way home, was already in England, and asked him
confidentially, both as a father and a brother banker, whether any credit
had come for the boy. The director ran over his correspondence, and,
looking up with a smile, said: