Norfleet: the actual experiences of a Texas rancher's 30,000-mile transcontinental chase after five confidence men. Page: 37 of 369

CHAPTER II.
THE WORLD MY HUNTING GROUND.
Forty-five thousand dollars gone!
Ninety thousand dollars in debt!
Fifty-four years old!
The three facts crashed on my brain. To all else
I thought or spoke, these piercing realities were an overtone
Forty-five thousand dollars gone! Ninety thousand
dollars in debt! Fifty-four years old!
The knowledge paralyzed, then shook me like an
earthquake, crumbling my castles into ashes about my
feet.
I went down into the lobby. A surging mass of
humanity swept back and forth.
It sickened me. I felt like the pivot of a huge
merry-go-round.
The orchestra on the balcony blared a jazzy tune.
People rushed to and fro knocking me against others.
Children skipped and leaped like wild things.
I was dazed, as in a dream, when one strives with
all his might to move, yet is held to the spot by unseen
shackles.
I gazed dully into passing faces. I was conscious
of looking for Stetson, Spencer, Hamlin, \Vard or Gerber,
but when I tried to recall what they looked like I
could not summon recognizable likenesses in my mind.
I would search the features of some one man, certain
he was not one of my men. But I had the horrifying
sensation of not knowing why he was not one of them.
I was terrified.
Was I going insane?
I tried first to summon Stetson before me. My
senses spun like whirling tops. I could not see him!
Mentally I tried to put him into the crowd. I wandered