refuse to answer it."

Me Hurdie kept on working, and the hands of the clock slipped around
nearly an hour. Then the bell tinkled and Neal Ward came in on his
afternoon round for news to print in the next day's issue of the
_Banner_.

"Anything new?" he asked.

"Mrs. Dorman is putting new awnings on the rear windows of her
store--did you get that?" asked McHurdie.

The young man made a note of the fact.

"Yes," added Dolan, "and you may just say that Hon. Jacob Dolan,
former sheriff of Garrison County, and a member of 'C' Company, well
known in this community, who has been custodian of public buildings
and grounds in and for Garrison County, state of Kansas, ss., is
contemplating resigning his position and removing to the National
Soldiers' Home at Leavenworth for the future."

Young Ward smiled, but did not take the item down in his note-book.

"It isn't time yet," he said.

"Why not?" asked Dolan.

"Only two months and a half since I printed that the last time. It
can't go oftener than four times a year, and it's been in twice this
year. Late in December will time it about right."

"What's the news with you, boy?" asked Dolan.

"Well," said the young man, pausing carefully as if to make a
selection from a large and tempting assortment, but really swinging
his arms for a long jump into the heart of the matter in his mind,
"have you heard that John Barclay has given the town his pipe organ?"

"You don't say!" exclaimed McHurdie.

"Tired of it?" asked Dolan, as though twenty-five-thousand-dollar pipe
organs were raining in the town every few days.

"It'll not be that, Jake," said Watts. "John is no man to tire of
things."

"No, it's not that, Mr. Dolan," answered Neal Ward. "He has sent word
to the mayor and council that he is going to have the organ installed
in Barclay Hall this week at his own expense, and he accompanied the
letter with fifty thousand dollars in securities to hire a permanent
organist and a band-master for the band; and a band concert and an
organ concert will alternate in the hall every week during the year. I
gather from reading his letter that Mr. Barclay believes the organ
will do more good in the hall than in his house."

The general and the colonel kept on at their game. Dolan whistled, and
Watts nodded his head. "That's what I would say he did it for," said
McHurdie.

"Are the securities N.P.C. stock?" asked Dolan, tentatively.

"No," replied Neal; "I saw them; they are