Year: 1872

note, the messenger departing IN
rapid somersaults, by way of diver
| sion, before I could stop him and.
| send out for help to the city. He
had brought meeyl tidings; my hus-


band wrote IN a hurry to say that he
had been called across the bay to at
tend an old patient, and would not
be home until the next morning /
| This was dreadful news, indeed.
Alone IN the house with this strange
| " acting man, with no one near,
might shutterjng down, and my hope
of my husbands return suddenly
tcut off; was ever woman go horribly
situated? But In the darkness of
despair / caught one gleam of hope.


There was no excuse for the gen
tleman from Reno to tarry any
longer. I told him, with i'll conceal
ed triumph, that my husband would
not be at home until the next day,
and he would be sure to meet him
at the nine o'clock boat. So I rose
and looked significantly at his huge
soft hat, hanging on my best of
Clytie, stood ready to show him to
the door. He said, ooh, well, it
don't make any difference to me, I
can Jest wait here for him. I reckon
you can bunk me in somewhere, and
it won't be lonesome to you if you
have man about the house, seeing
as your old mans not round.


In vain I protested that 1 was
used to being alone (Which was
ffb), and that it would not be con-
venient for me to have him stop.
He declared with horrible irony that
I should be half scared to death if I


was left alone, and that he could
''lop down" on the floor or anywhere
if I had no spare bed for him. He
had Jared much worse before now in
Reno.


So he stayed. I eau never forget
nor despict the horrors of that night


He sat alter supper chatting with
rascally nonchalance of all sorts of
improbable things which me and
Hank" had done when they camped
together in Brandy Canon IN 1850,
| just as though my refined and pre-
| cious husband ever knew this rough
creature before me. or had shared in
the adventures which he now spun
ont in his wild talk of the days of so
at Hog Bar and Brandy Canon. He
took up one of my fragile hyacinths
blooming In the window, (the wind
blows so we c4nnot raise flowers out
doors In Jenkins street, and nursing
it with his plastered lips. said:
" Now, that s purity; we don't have
no flowers up in Reno" I deluded
myself into the notion that he gave
a little sigh, but he added. disdain


fully, as if rallying himself "We
don't have no time to fool away on
pOsies, you bet.


Every once IN q while he got up
and walked the room, and then l
thought my time had come, but he
only strobe across the little parlor
with two or three long steps,
making the house rattle IN every
Joint, so that I thought it would
come down about my ears, and then


he sat down again. Once he extended


his walk into the door-yard, but soon
came back, smeIliug dreadfuHy with
tobacco smoke, which the wind, now
lulled to a zephyr was not strong
enough to blow away. The children
having been put TO bed, and Norah,
sniveling with apprehension, being
permitted TO curl herself up in a
corner of my own chamber, I had
nothing to do but sit up with a fear
full sort of fascination and listen va
cantly to the discursive talk of the


gentleman from Reno


I sat and looked at him as he half
| nodded In his chair, wildly wonder
ing if he could not go to sleep, and


if could not seize him and pinion
him before he could awake. I
thought how terrible he would strug-


gle, aud how Norah would hear him


aud come bowling down stairs, or
vainly scream for help from the win
dows. Sometimes I thought I would
rise up and fercely ask him why he
did not begin his bloody work, and
put me out of misery But as was a


tinid and nervous little woman, I
did no such thing, but let him run
on with his talk, and wondered at
his voice, which actually, now that
the wind was down, made the house
shake.


Led by some awful spell upon me,
l showed him shudderingly to his
chamber, and after his gray suit had


dropped in detached parts sll over
the floor, heard him throw himself,
| with a sort of snort, upon the pretty
little spare bed in the best room,
: with a crash that threatened to bring
} the frail thing in fragments through
the thin floor. I did not care to
take off my clothes, but softly plac-
ing a chair before the door of the
gentleman of Reno, I slipped into
: my own room, locked the door, and
: lay quaking through the night, wait
} ing for the signal when the violence
: would begin.


Confused dreams of a great many
, gentlemen from Reno carrying of
| my children and best china in small
instailments made my night long
aud troubled. I started up at every
J sound, rigid with terror as fancied
| heard my lodger fall over the chair
which 1 lad placed to trap him, or


was sure that I heard the cracking
3 of IRE on the stairs, or the low whis-
tie of a confederate under the win
! dows. But no sound smote on the
ear but the melancholy boom of the
, fOg-bell at Fort Point, the occasional
$ barking of the dogs IN the Western
t Addition, and the stentorious breath
, ing of the gentleman from Reno.
Daylight came and brought with
/ it a sense of securitv If not Of rest