For the scourge I bear drives Truth away.

“Friends have I sought by like or lure,

And begged their hands in fellowship,

And felt their stabs, than steel more sure,

The scorn that curls the sneering lip;

“So never a friend have I known to love,

And never a love have I known to keep,

Now grip this life I am weary of,

And stab me down to a dreamless sleep!”

The tracker thought of the crimson path