Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1888-02-18
8loffat, the heiress.

whom it now appeared had never been lie.
gally divorced from the deceased; next by
four of his cousins who awole only too late
to a consciousness of his moral and pecuniary
worth, But the humble legatce--a singularly
plain, unpretendiEg, uueducatcd western
girl-exhibited a doggad peltrac!ty IL
claiming her rights. She rejected al compro
misses. a rough sense Of Justice ii the com
munity, whilo doubling her ability to take
care Of the whole fortune, suggested that she
ought to be content with S5G9,G0O "S;he's
bound to throw even that away ON some
| derned skunk of man, natoerally; but
| three millions is too much to give u
chap for maxim her onhappy. It's orerin
a temptation to Cussed1ess." The only
opposing voice to this counsel came from
the saIrlonic lips of blr Jack Hamlin. "Sup-
pose," suggested that gentleman, turning
abruptly on the spea&eF-"suppose, when
you won 100000 of me last Friday
night - suppose that instead of handing
You over the money as did--supPose I'd got
up on my hind less, and said Look yer Bill
Wethersbee, you're a id fool II | give
We that twenty thousand, youth throw it
away in the first skin game i'll Frisco, and
hand it over to the first short card sharp you'll
meet. There's a thousand-enougk for you
to fling away,-take it and getr Suppose
what I'd said to you was the frozen truth,
and you know'd it, would that have been the
square thing to play on you" But here
Wethersbee quickly pointed out the ineffi-
cheney of the comparison by stating that he
had won the money fairly with stake. "And
how do you know" demanded Hamlin saw
agely, bending his black eyes on the aston
shed casuist-"how do you know that the gal
hen't put down stakeln The man STAN
mered AN unintelligible reply. The gambler
laid his white hand on Wethersbee's shoulder
Look here old man." he said, "every gal
stakes her whole pile--you can bet YOU. life
on that-whatever's her little game. If she
took to keerds instead of her feelings, if she'd
put up chips instead o. body and soul, she'd
bust every bank 'twixt this and 'Frisco You
hear meP
Somewhat of this idea was conveyed, | fear
not quite as sentimentally, to Peggy Moffat
herself. The best legal wisdom of San Fran
occasion, in private interview with Peggy,
to point out that she stood in the Guasi-crimi-
nal attitude of having unlawfully practiced
upon the affections Of an insane elderly gentle
man, with a view of getting possession Ct his
property, and suggested to her that 10 vestige
of her moral character would remain after
the trial, if she persisted in forcing her claims
to that issue. 1t is said that Peggy, on hear
ing this, stopped washing the plate she had in
her hands, and, twisting the towel around her
fingers, fixed her small pale blue eyes at the
lawyer.
"And ez that the kind o. chirpin these crit
ters keep up?"
Il regret to say. my dear young lady" re
sponded the lawyer, that the world is cen
serious. must add, -" he continued, with en-
gaging franbness, that we professional law
yers are apt to study the opinion of the
world, and that such will be the theory Of
our side"
"Then," said Peggy stoutly, "ez I allow
I've got to go into court to defend my char
acter, might as well pack in them three mil
lions too"
There is hearsay evidence that Peg added
to this speech wish and desire to "bust the
crust" of her traducers, and, remarking that
that was the kind of hairpin' she was,
closed the conversation with an unfortunate
accident to the plate that left a severe contu-
sion on the legal brow of her companion.
But this story, popular in the barrooms and
gulches, lacked confirmation in higher circles,
Better authenticated was the legend related
Of an interview with her own lawyer That
gentleman had pointed out TO her the advau-
tage of being able to show some reasonable
cause for the singular generosity OF the tes-
tator.
although" he continued, 'the law does
not go back of the will for reason or cause for
its provisions, it would be a strong point with
the judge and jury-particularly if the
theory of insanity were set up-for us to
show that the act was logical and natural.
OF course you have--I speak confidently,
Miss Moffat-certain ideas Of your own why
the late Mr.. Byways was so singularly gen.
erous to you"
mo, haven't" said Peg decidedly.
"Think again. Had he not expressed to
you-you understand that this is confidential
between us, although protest, my dear young
lady, that see no reason why it should not
be made public-had he not given utterance
to sentiments of nature consistent with
some future matrimonial relations" But
here Miss Pegs large mouth, which had been
slowly relaxing over her irregular teeth,
stopped him.
IF you mean he wanted to marry me-
Mop
II see. But were there any conditions-of
course you know the law takes no cognizance
Of any not expressed in the will; but still, for
The sake OF mere corIoboration OF the be-
qUest-do you know OF any conditions on
which he gave you the propertys"
you mean did he want anything in re-
mmW
"Exactly, my dear young lady"
Pegs face on one side turned deep ma
9th. l.,l,A gl,A