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months after my death, as I
was saying, I went there and found her sitting at the piano and playing
softly and talking between bars to a young woman whom I had never liked.
She was really the principal one to lead Mary on in her fatal
extravagance.

"From her conversation I found that the mortgage was to be foreclosed the
next week. The business was at its last gasp, and I thought she seemed
more cheerful than circumstances warranted. Well, to make a long story
short she was telling her friend that she was engaged to marry a captain
in the army and that as soon as her year and day was finished they would
be married and go to Porto Rico where he was to be stationed. Well, sir,
I was so mad that I did not know what to do. All I could do was to stand
there behind the piano and listen to their gabble. I never went back
again. I don't care if she has to take in washing to support him. Now,
wouldn't that make your hair curl?"

"I certainly think it would," replied the newspaper man earnestly. Just
then a small sized ghost stepped forward timidly and in a very polite
manner bowing and signifying that he did not wish to intrude, yet had
something to say. Several were gathered there and each evidently intended
to tell the story of his own taking off.

"Sir," said the little man as soon as he saw that the reporter noticed
him, "perhaps you might feel interested in the singular way in which I
came to die. I may almost say that I did another man's dying for him."

"It would be very interesting, I am sure," replied the young man with a
bow. This ghost had a heavy manzanita cane with abundant evidence of the
hard knotty roots at the knob, and they were so very sharp that the
simple appearance of it was quite enough to provoke interest in the
story, so the little ghost heaved a deep sigh and began:

"I will make my story as short as possible, as time presses. I was a
young man in the best of health, when some forty-five years ago I started
to California to make my fortune. I intended to start a jewelry store in
one of the mining towns, in fact Murphy's Camp, a place well known then
as it is now. Some of the story I did not know myself at the time of my
death, though I learned it since and will incorporate it in this.

"The people of that part of the country liked to play practical jokes on
strangers-I was a stranger-and they took me in. The stage driver and all
the passengers set out to frighten me with the most blood-curdling tales
of the way travelers were robbed and murdered for their money or
belongings. As I had all my stock with me I felt very nervous. I did not
know that all this was what they called 'Joshing green horns.' So by the
time we reached Murphy's I was scared all the way through.

"We reached there just at sundown, and as soon as supper was over I went
to my room and to bed. I was very tired. This room was partitioned off
with redwood boards and was not even papered. There was just room for a
narrow bed, a small stand and one chair. I put all my things under the
bed, but I lay awake a long time, on account of strange mutterings and
moans and cries in one of the rooms. But at last I fell asleep.

"I must now tell you what I learned afterward regarding the affair. I was
an Englishman, small in size, and my hair was red and very curly. There
was in this town another English jeweler, small and with curling red
hair. He had had typhoid fever for several days and it was his delirious
moans I heard.

"All the miners of this place gathered every evening at the barroom of
this hotel, at the time of which I speak, to pass the time and play
cards. Sometimes they remained until morning. The driver of the coach was
an enormous man, strong as an ox, and as good-natured. He was a regular
fanatic about the game they call poker, and they say he would play
forty-eight hours on a stretch. They tell a story about how he and
another poker fiend kept on playing once till their cards began to smoke
before they knew the place was on fire.

"Seeing that this driver was settled for the night the hotel keeper asked
him if he would do something for him. 'Certainly, what is it?' The other
replied that the little English jeweler was very sick, and that he was
worn out taking care of him. So he asked the driver to give the sick man
his medicine at exactly three o'clock. The driver was always willing to
do anyone a good turn, and asked about the dose, and how to prepare it,
saying at the same time that the little Englishman must have been taken
very suddenly. The landlord replied that he had indeed and was scarcely
expected to pull through, and that all depended on his getting his
medicine regularly. 'And, he will tell you that he isn't sick, and don't
want any medicine, and all that, but you must make him take it.'

"'All right,' replied the driver, 'I'll see that he takes it. You go to
bed.' They played and smoked until three o'clock, and then the big driver
mixed up the draught in a big spoon, and taking a candle he came up the
stairs. He forgot about the other Englishman, and asked the porter where
the little Englishman was that had come up that day. The sleepy porter
told him where my room was. Now I can tell the rest from my own
knowledge. I was suddenly aroused from my sleep to see an enormous form
standing beside my bed, outlined by the flickering candle on the stand,
and naturally my first thought was that I was about to be robbed and
murdered, perhaps murdered first. I called out to know who it was and the
big figure said:

"'You keep still now, and don't get excited. No one is going to hurt you,
so just take this now, and then lie down and go to sleep. It won't hurt
you.'

"I was sure now that I was going to be drugged into insensibility and I
told him that I would take nothing. He said:

"'Now don't you fash yourself, but take this medicine, It will do you
good and is not bad to take, all stirred up with molasses.'

"'But I won't touch it,' I cried; 'you want to drug me and rob me. Get
out of here.' As I said that I pushed him away with all my strength, but
he just put his great hand around my neck and jerked me up in bed,
saying:

"'Ah, I knew you would say that. Now come on and no more nonsense.' With
that he jammed the spoon down my throat and choked me with the other hand
so that I had to swallow or strangle. So I took his dose, and he let me
go, and laid me down in bed again like a baby, but I think I fainted, for
I knew nothing more until the daylight was streaming in the window. I
found all my things untouched, but I felt awfully ill, and could scarcely
get up. But I determined to leave, if they would let me, as soon as I
could get away. When I did get down stairs everybody had heard of the
affair and they began to make fun of me. I took passage back to Stockton,
but I felt very queer. I took cold and died in about six weeks, and the
other Englishman got well. The shock and the awful dose combined with the
cold I took finished me up. What made me the maddest of all was that the

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