He sensed it now, in the keen, poignant clairvoyance of the moment--the tangle of life that he was about to enter.

Old Bill Belllounds, big and fine, victim of love for a wayward son; Buster Jack, the waster, the tearer-down, the destroyer, the wild youth at a wild time; Columbine, the girl of unknown birth, good and loyal, subject to a condition sure to ruin her.

Wade's strange mind revolved a hundred outcomes to this conflict of characters, but not one of them was the one that was written.

That remained dark.

Never had he received so strong a call out of the unknown, nor had he ever felt such intense curiosity.