After that they've given no trouble, but they get on a jag of some kind now and then." Blake nodded.

He knew that the fanatic with untrained and unbalanced mind is liable under the influence of excitement to indulge in crude debauchery; but it was strange that a man of culture, such as Clarke appeared to be, should take part in these excesses.

He had, however, no interest in the fellow; and he turned the talk on to other matters, until it got cold and they went to sleep.
Starting early the next morning, they reached Sweetwater after an uneventful journey, and found it by no means an attractive place.
South of it, rolling prairie ran back, grayish white with withered grass, to the skyline; to the north, straggling poplar bluffs and scattered Jack-pines crowned the summits of the ridges.

A lake gleamed in a hollow, a slow creek wound across the foreground in a deep ravine, and here and there in the distance was an outlying farm.

A row of houses followed the crest of the ravine, some built of small logs, and some of shiplap lumber which had cracked with exposure to the sun, but all having a neglected and poverty-stricken air.