Litchfield enquirer., 1878-11-28
THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYs.
 TERRY.
PART l..

It was growing quite dark in the telegraph office. at Cottonwood, Tushmine County, California The office, bOx-like inclosure, was separated from the public room of the Miners Hotel by a thin partition, and the op- orator, who was also News and Express Agent at Cottonwood, had closed his window, and was lounging by his newsstand, preparatory l to going home. Without, the first monotoneus rain of the season was dripping from the porch es of the hotel in the waning light of a Decem- Der day. Tie operator, accustomed as, he was to long intervals of 'idleness, was fast becoming bored.
 l The tread of mud-muffled boots on the yer anda and the entrance of two men, offered a momentary excitement. The operator recog- nized in the strangers two prominent citizens 1 of Cottonwood. and their manner bespoke bus iness One of them proceeded to the desk, wrote a dispatch, and handed it to the other interrogatively.
 That's about the way the thing p'ints, |" responded his companion assentingly.
 ''I reekoned it only squar' to use his dienti- kal words ?' q
 That's so.''
 The first speaker turned to the operator with l the dispatch. s'How soon can you shove her through?" The operator glanced professionally over the address and the length of the dispatch.
 "Now," he answered promptly. "And she gets there--"
 Tonight ; but there's no delivery until to- morrow"
 "shove her through tonight, 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 dis patch, 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 areputati >n for equal spol lta iety of temper and revolver, met his gaze a littleimpatiently. The operator had recourse to trick. Under the pretence of misunderstanding the message, he obliged the sender to repeat it aloud for the sake of accuracy, and even suggested a few verbal alterations, ostensibly to insure correct ness, but really to extract further information. Nevertheless, the man doggedly persisted in literal transcript of his message. The operator went to his instrument hesitatingly.
 '1 suppose" he added, half questicningly, "there aint no chance of mistake. This ad- dress is Rightbody, that rich old Bostenian that everybody knows They aint but one ?"
 That's the address, responded the first speaker, coolly.
 Didn't know the old chap had investments out here, suggested the operator, lingering at the instrument.
 'No more did l, was the insufficient reply
 For some few moments nothing was heard heard but the click of the instrument. as the operator worked the key with the usual ap- pearance of imparting confidence to a some what reluctant nearer who preferred to talk himself. The two men stood by, watching his motions with the usual awe of the unpro- fessional. When he had fpished, they laid before him two gold pieces. As the operator took them up, he could not help saying:
 "The old man went off kinder sudden, didn't he ? Had no time to write ?''
 ''Not sudden for that kind O man, was the exasperating reply.
 But the speaker was not te be dIsconcerted. If there is an answer--" he began. ssrhay aint any g raplioa tho fsse opeaEss=z quietly.
 ''Why?"
 Because the man ez sent the message is dead"
 "But it's signed by you two"
 ''On'y ez witnessess-eh ?" appealed the first speaker to his comrade.
 ''On'y ez witnesses responded the other.
 The operator shrugged his shoulders. The business concluded, the first speaker slightly relaxed. He nodded to the operator, and turned to the bar-room with a pleasing social impulse. When their glasses were set down empty, the first speaker, with cheerful con demnation of the hard times and the weather, apparently dismissed all previous proceedings from hls mind, and lQunged out with his con- panion. At the corner of the street they stopped;
 ''Wcll, that jobs done," saidthe first speak CT, by way of relieving the slight social embar- rassment of parting.
 ''Thet's so, !" responded his companion, and and shook his hand.
 They parted. A gust of wind swept through the pines, and struck faint Eolian cry from the wires above their heads, and the rain and the darkness again slowly settled upon Cotton wood.
 The message Jagged a little at San Francis CO., laid over half an hour at Chicago, and fought longitude the whole way, SO that it was past midnight when the ''all night" operator took it from the wires at Boston. But it was freighted with mandate from the San Fran cisco office, and a messenger was procured, who sped with it through dark ,snow-boand streets, between the high walls of close-shuttered, ray less houses to certain fermal square. ghostly with snow-covered statues. Here he ascended the broad steps of reserved and solid-looking mansion, and pulled a bronze bell-knob that, somewhere within those chaste recesses, after
  cated the fact that stranger was waiting without-as he ought. Despite the lateness of the hour, there was a slight glow from the windows clearly not enough to warm the mes senger with indications of a festivity within, but yet bespeaking, as it were, some prolong- ed, though subdued, excitement. The sober servant, who took the dispatch and receipted for it as gravely as if witnessing last will and testament, respectfully paused before the ,,G% aR measured and rhetorical speech, through which the occasional cough of the New England coast struggled, as the only effort of nature not wholly repressed, came from it's heavily curtained recesses for the occasion of the eve- ming had been the reception and entertainment of various distinguished persons, and, as had been epigrammatically expressed by one of the guests 'the history of the country" was talk I ing it's leave in phrases more or less memorable and characteristic Some of these valedictory axioms were clever, some witty, few pro found, but always left as a genteel contribu- ton to the entertainer. Some had been already prepared, and, like card, had served and identified the guest at other mansions. k The last guest departed, the last carriage rolled away, when the servant ventured to in-' dicate the existence of the dispatch to his mas ter, who was standing on the hearth-rug in an attitude of wearied self-righteousness He took it. opened it, read it, re-read it and then said: I
 sThere must be some mistake It is not for me; call the boy, Waters" I
 Waters, who was perfectly aware that tle boy had left nevertheless obediently walked toward the hall-dOor, but was recalled by his master. H
 ssN0 matter-at present ]"
 s'Its nothing serious ?" asked Mrs. Right body, with languid wifely concern. a
 '.No nothing. Is there light in my study ?"
 ''Yes, but before you go-can you give me moment or two?"
 MT. Rightbody turned little impatiently toward his wife. She had thrown herself, languidly, on the sofa, her hair was slightly disarranged, and part of a slippered fost was visible. She might have been finely formed woman, but even her careless deshadille left the general impression that she was severely flanneled throughout, and that any ostentation of womanly charm was under vigorous sanita- " surveillance. {
 sMrs. Marvin told me tonight that her son =