survive him. Whether Mr. Hamlin ever clothed with
action the suggestion indicated in his speech to the lamented Jack that
night, is not of record. He was always her friend, and on her demise
became her executor. But the bulk of her property was left to a distant
relation of handsome Jack Folinsbee, and so passed out of the control of
Red Dog forever.

THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY

It was growing quite dark in the telegraph-office at Cottonwood,
Tuolumne County, California. The office, a box-like enclosure, was
separated from the public room of the Miners' Hotel by a thin partition;
and the operator, who was also news and express agent at Cottonwood,
had closed his window, and was lounging by his news-stand preparatory
to going home. Without, the first monotonous rain of the season was
dripping from the porches of the hotel in the waning light of a December
day. The operator, accustomed as he was to long intervals of idleness,
was fast becoming bored.

The tread of mud-muffled boots on the veranda, and the entrance of two
men, offered a momentary excitement. He recognized in the strangers two
prominent citizens of Cottonwood; and their manner bespoke business. One
of them proceeded to the desk, wrote a despatch, and handed it to the
other interrogatively.

"That's about the way the thing p'ints," responded his companion
assentingly.

"I reckoned it only squar to use his dientical words?"

"That's so."

The first speaker turned to the operator with the despatch.

"How soon can you shove her through?"

The operator glanced professionally over the address and the length of
the despatch.

"Now," he answered promptly.

"And she gets there?"

"To-night. But there's no delivery until to-morrow."

"Shove her through to-night, and say there's an extra twenty left here
for delivery."

The operator, accustomed to all kinds of extravagant outlay for
expedition, replied that he would lay this proposition with the
despatch, before the San Francisco office. He then took it and read
it--and re-read it. He preserved the usual professional apathy,--had
doubtless sent many more enigmatical and mysterious messages,--but
nevertheless, when he finished, he raised his eyes inquiringly to his
customer. That gentleman, who enjoyed a reputation for equal spontaneity
of temper and revolver, met his gaze a little impatiently. The operator
had recourse to a trick. Under the pretence of misunderstanding the
message, he obli