uard ran by, Mrs. Stannard's
clear voice floated out on the night air,--

"What is the matter, corporal?"

"Lieutenant Gleason's murdered, ma'am; shot dead in his room."

"Good heavens! Who _could_ have done it?"

"I don't--leastwise, ma'am, they--they say 'twas Lieutenant Ray."

CHAPTER XXIII.

IN CLOSER TOILS.

A coroner's inquest was in session at Russell, and in the benighted
regions of the Eastern States where the functions of that worthy public
officer are mainly exercised in connection with the "demnition moist"
remains of the "found drowned," or the attenuated skeletons of the
starved, there can be but faint conception of the divinity which doth
hedge a coroner in a frontier city where people, as a rule, die with
their boots on. Perhaps it was a proper consideration of the relative
importance of the two offices which had induced Mr. Perkins to decline
with thanks the nomination of territorial delegate to Congress, and to
intimate through the columns of _The Blizzard_ that he sought no higher
office at the hands of the people than that in which, to the best of his
humble ability, he had already served two terms. As the emoluments of
the coronership were dependent entirely upon the number of inquests held
during the year, the position in an Ohio town of five thousand
inhabitants would hardly have taken precedence over a seat in the House
of Representatives, but a lively frontier city, the supply centre of all
the stock, mining, and trading enterprises to the north of the
railway,--a town that had been the division terminus since the road was
built, and was the recognized metropolis of the plains,--well, "that
_was_ different, somehow," said Mr. Perkins's friends; and, as his
gleanings had been double those he would have received in
Congress,--that is, in the way of salary,--Mr. Perkins had wisely
decided that so long as "business was brisk" he preferred the exaltation
of holding the most lucrative position in the gift of his
fellow-citizens. His decision had been a disappointment to other
aspirants, for not only pecuniarily was the office of first importance,
but, in the very nature of his functions, the coroner acquired in the
eyes of all men a mysterious interest and influence beside which the
governor of the Territory, the mayor, and even the chief of the fire
department felt themselves dwarfed into insignificance. For four years
Mr. Perkins had been a busy man. He dispensed far more patronage t