"This is an ignorant, determined man, who has long had one fixed idea.

More than that, he seems to me (I may misjudge him) to be a man of a desperate and fierce character." "I know he is," I returned.

"Let me tell you what evidence I have seen of it." And I told him what I had not mentioned in my narrative, of that encounter with the other convict.
"See, then," said Herbert; "think of this! He comes here at the peril of his life, for the realization of his fixed idea.

In the moment of realization, after all his toil and waiting, you cut the ground from under his feet, destroy his idea, and make his gains worthless to him.
Do you see nothing that he might do, under the disappointment ?" "I have seen it, Herbert, and dreamed of it, ever since the fatal night of his arrival.

Nothing has been in my thoughts so distinctly as his putting himself in the way of being taken." "Then you may rely upon it," said Herbert, "that there would be great danger of his doing it.