It charged that the editor
of the _World_ had ruined a girl named Nellie Anderson at a house
where he had boarded and that she had subsequently disappeared. It
featured also a story of how he had been seen to enter his rooms
at midnight with a woman of the street, who remained there until
morning reveling with him. Attached to this were the affidavits of
two detectives, a police officer, and the druggist who had
furnished the liquor.
The story exploded like a bomb shell in the camp of the
progressives. Rawson tried at once without success to get Jeff on
the telephone. He was not at the office, nor had he reached his
rooms at all after leaving the _World_ building on the previous
night. None of his friends had seen or heard of him.
The afternoon papers had a sensation of their own. Jefferson
Farnum had left Verden secretly without leaving an address.
Evidently he had been given a hint of the exposure that was to be
made of his life and had decamped rather than face the charges.
Rumor had a hundred tales to tell. The waverers at the State House
chose to believe that Jeff had sold them out and fled with his
price. It was impossible to deny the stories of his immorality,
since it happened that Sam Miller, the only man who knew the whole
story, was far up in the mountains arranging for a shipment of
Rocky Mountain sheep to the state museum.
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