No nearer now than when the quest began

To what he sought on that long winter trail.

Aye, Jamie had been there; but when the tale

That roving trappers brought from Kiowa

Was told to him, he seemed as one who saw

A ghost, and could but stare on it, they said:

Until one day he mounted horse and fled

Into the North, a devil-ridden man.

“I’ve got to go and find him if I can,”

Was all he said for days before he left.