My regrets could not have been very deeply felt. They were checked by the reflection, that he could have given me some information concerning my mother, and that he had died apparently happy with the thought, that he had disappointed me by withholding it! Mr Leary had been my mother's husband--my own stepfather--yet without shame I have recorded the fact, that he died an ignominious death. I am not responsible for his actions. I stand alone; and the man who may think any the less of me, for my unfortunate relationship with a murderer, is one whose good will I do not think worth having. Volume Two, Chapter V. STORMY'S LAST SPREE. Shortly after my return to the Tuolumne, I was joined by Stormy Jack, who came to Jacksonville, as he had promised he would, with the determination to take the world a little easier. Since his childhood Stormy had never spent a whole week in idleness--at least not at a single spell--and such a life he soon found, did not help him to that supreme happiness he had been anticipating from it. In the little town of Jacksonville an idle man could only find amusement, in some place where strong drink was sold; and to be, day after day, continually called upon to resist the temptation to drink, was a trial too severe for Stormy's mental and physical constitution. Both had to yield. He got drunk frequently; and on several occasions so very drunk, as to be affected both in his head and legs at the same time! He was himself somewhat surprised at finding himself so often in this condition of "double drunkenness,"--as he termed it. It was not often in his life he had been so. It was a serious affair; and he made some sort of a resolution that it should not occur again. To avoid its recurrence, he saw that he must employ himself in some way; and he purchased a rifle, with the design of transforming himself into a hunter. By following this profession he could combine business with amusement, as there were other hunters making a very good thing of it, by supplying the citizens of Jacksonville with venison and bear meat. Stormy prosecuted his new calling for about three days. At the end of that time he had been taught three things. One was, that hunting was hard work--harder, if possible, than mining. Secondly, he discovered that the amusement of the chase was, after all, not so grand--especially when followed as a profession, or by a man of peculiar inclinations, altogether different to his own. Finally, Stormy arrived at the conclusion, that the business didn't pay. The truth is, Stormy was no marksman; and could only hit a barn, by going inside, and closing the door before firing off his piece. The calling of a hunter was not suited to the old "salt," nor was it of the kind he required, to keep him from backsliding into his bad habit. He therefore determined to give it up, and take to some other. While deliberating on what was to be done, he again yielded to the old temptation; and got gloriously drunk.