One of his eyes was bloodshot, and surrounded by a wide area of
discolouration, and he was conscious of several painful contusions on
other portions of his body. His clothing was badly disordered and
stained with blood; and, all in all, he was scarcely in a condition to
appear in public. He made such a toilet as he could, and, anxious to
avoid observation, had his horse brought from the livery around to the
rear door of the hotel, and left for Mink Run by the back streets. He
did not return to town for a week, and when he made his next
appearance there, upon strictly a business visit, did not go near the
Treadwells', and wore such a repellent look that no one ventured to
speak to him about his encounter with Fetters and McRae. He was
humiliated and ashamed, and angry with himself and all the world. He
had lost Graciella already; any possibility that might have remained
of regaining her affection, was destroyed by his having made her name
the excuse for a barroom broil. His uncle was not well, and with the
decline of his health, his monomania grew more acute and more
absorbing, and he spent most of his time in the search for the
treasure and in expostulations with Viney to reveal its whereabouts.
The supervision of the plantation work occupied Ben most of the time,
and during his intervals of leisure he sought to escape unpleasant
thoughts by busying himself with the model of his cotton gin.
His life had run along in this way for about two weeks after the
ball, when one night Barclay Fetters, while coming to town from his
father's plantation at Sycamore, in company with Turner, his father's
foreman, was fired upon from ambush, in the neighbourhood of Mink
Run, and seriously wounded.
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