ou. Unless you can do better I
have half a mind not to let you see the telegram I got from my
daughter Syrilla this morning."

"Was the news into it good?" asked Mr. Gubb eagerly.

"As good as gold," said Mr. Medderbrook. "As good as Utterly Hopeless
Gold-Mine stock."

"What did Miss Syrilla convey the remark of?" asked the lovelorn
paper-hanger detective.

"Well, now," said Mr. Medderbrook, "I went and paid two dollars and
fifty cents for that telegram. For one dollar and twenty-five cents
I'll give you the telegram, and you can read it from start to finish."

Mr. Gubb, his heart palpitating as only a lover's heart can palpitate,
paid Mr. Medderbrook the sum he asked and eagerly read the telegram
from Syrilla. It said:--

Grand news! Have given up all fish diet. Have given up
codfish, weak fish, sole, flounder, shark's fins, bass,
trout, herring (dried, kippered, smoked, and fresh), finnan
haddie, perch, pike, pickerel, lobster, halibut, and stewed
eels. Gross weight now only nine hundred and thirty pounds
averdupois. Sweet thoughts to Gubby-lubby.

"You are touched," said Mr. Medderbrook as Mr. Gubb put the dear
missive to his lips, "but unless I am mistaken you will be still more
deeply touched when you pay for--when you read Syrilla's next
telegram."

"I so hope and trust," said Mr. Gubb, and he returned to his office in
the Opera House Block with a light heart.

* * * * *

With the increase of fame that came to him as a detective Mr. Gubb's
paper-hanging business had grown, and he had left Mrs. Murphy's house
and taken a room on the second floor of Opera House Block, near the
offices of ex-Judge Gilroy, attorney-at-law, and C. M. Dillman, loans
and real estate. The door now bore the sign

PHILO GUBB
DETECKATIVE
Also Paper-hanging

On this morning Detective Gubb had hardly reached his office when
Uncle Gabriel Hostetter, a shrewd smile on his face, opened Mr. Gubb's
door.

Uncle Gabriel Hostetter was a round-shouldered old man with a long
white beard that came to a thin point. He wore old-fashioned
gold-rimmed spectacles, the rims forming irregular octagons, and on
his head he wore one of the grandest old silk hats that ever saw the
light of day in 1865. His principal garment was a frock coat, once
black, but now grayish green. He was the wealthiest man in town, and
i