A Millionaire of Rough and Ready

d, or whether his late reflections had repeopled it with his family under pleasanter auspices, it would be difficult to determine. Destitute as he w

f Slinn's claim to the usual patient and laborious investigation of his practical mind. It was the l

again, and these scattered embers rekindled? His practical sense said No! whatever his wish might have been. A sudden chill came over him; he began to realize the terrible change that was probable, more by the impossibility of his accepting the old order of things than by his voluntarily abandoning the new. His wife and children would never sub

reserved for a year, and then forgotten! Why had he not remembered it before? He was frightened, not only at this sudden resurrection of the proof he was seeking, but at his own fateful forgetfulness

on, and what did he want? He hurriedly laid aside the pick, which, in his first impulse, he had taken to the door

embled violently, and clung

ht of what passed between us last night out of your head and mine forever! I've come to ask you to swear with me that neither of us will ever speak of this again for

mayn't be any use for another word, if you can answer one now. Come with m

tairs, and opened the door of the loft. The pick was leaning against the w

in a half-frightened way, and then lifted t

know tha

s trembling hands. "I

is it

said hu

kes you think

t handle like

isn't

broken and spliced. I was

pick which I found in

es

li

rehead, looked at Mulrady, and dropped hi

o," said Mul

k of this again?" said

t until I have so

rnish. He placed this, with a large sum of money and the promise of a still larger reward, in the hands of a trustworthy agent. When this was done he resumed his old relations with Sl

"Record" that the presence of a distinguished capitalist might soon be required abroad. The face of that distinguished man did not, however, reflect the gayety of nature nor the anticipation of happiness; on the contra

had been watching the careworn face of his e

n unless we had other proofs of what I told you then. We have none; I don't believe we'll ever have any more. I don't ca

of deprecation, but

to give your daughter a dowry of two hundred and fifty thousand do

ut a dowry?" asked Mulr

lvarado told

with sudden small malevolence, "just that he might unload his gossip becau

common nature with its littleness, that it was easy to detect

now, than what we have tested and found wanting. I swear to you that, except to show you that I have not lied and am not crazy, I would destroy them on their way to your hands. Keep

it would make her happy. I should like to shut the lantern jaws of that Don Caesar, who'd be too glad if anything happened to break off Mamie's match. But I shouldn't touch that capital-unless you'd lend it t

with a smile, "have your way; and if I te

in, when he was informed one morning at his private office that Don Caesar Alvarado was in the counting-house, desiring a few moments' conference. "Tell him to come in," said Mulrady, shortly. The door opened upon Don Caesar-erect, sallow, and grave. Mulrady had not seen him since his

heer," sa

t Slinn with quietly p

Mulrady, accepting the significa

er moment for our conversation," returned Don Caesar

f his age, and once a possible son-in-law-appeared to claim that recognition also. He rose, without a word, and preceded Don Caesar up-stairs

at least have given you some intimation of the reason why I seek it. As you just now proposed my

what Mrs. Mulrady's got to do with Slinn

I entrusted to her an important letter, belonging to Senor Esslinn, which I had the ho

dy, slowly; "my wife h

I did not choose to leave it in the helpless hands of its imbecile owner, or his sillier children, but proposed to trust it to the care of the Senora, that she and you might deal with it as became your honor and mine. I followed her to Paris, and gave her the letter there. She affected to laugh at any pretension of the writer, or any claim he might have on your bounty; but she kept the letter, and, I fear, destroyed it. You will understand, Senor Mulrady, that when I found that my attentions were no longer agreeable to your daugh

whitened Mulrady's face. But his eye was none the less clear

tly the contents

ept a cop

with

oked up at his employer's face in unrestrained anxiety. Mulrady sat down at his desk,

at to th

t at that moment countermanded the order to pay

n the day you made your strike in the tunnel that is now my sha

o was entirely unprepared for this revelation of Mulrady's and Slinn's confidences, he continued, "He has brought

paper, and handed it to the paralytic. But Slinn's trembling fingers could scarcely unfold the

" said Mulrady, gently. "You kin fo

and, in dead silenc

t was after six months' hard work; and I'm so weak I . . . It's a fortune for us all. We should be rich even if i

n, in a voice tha

y look

ked, anxiously; "it should be

! I am wrong! W

screamed, with passionate vehemence, "it's MASTERS' ABANDONED TUNNEL your

lrady, springing to his feet i

till

t up with his feverish speed. Their way lay along the base of the hill below Mulrady's shaft, and on a line with Masters' abandoned tunnel. Only once he stopped to snatch a pick from the hand of an astonished Chinaman at work in a ditch, as he still kept on his way, a quarter of a

said Mulrady, laying his hand on the arm of the ex

ht," returned Slinn, struggling. "Let me go, wh

and ran forward to meet him. As he was carrying something clasped to his breast, they supported him to the opening. But at the same moment the object of his search and his burden, a misshapen wedge of go

sped, brokenly,

e was