han
the delegate to Congress, as he was constantly besieged by a class of
impecunious patriots to "put 'em on the next one." A stranger arriving
by train and seeing a man shot down in front of some one of the
gambling-saloons, would have been perplexed to account for the rush of
the crowd in one direction, instead of scattering till the shooting was
over and then concentrating to stare at the victim. It was a race for
the coroner, and a place on the jury was the customary reward of the
winner. Too much precipitancy in some such cases, resulting in the
discovery by Mr. Perkins on arriving at the scene that the corpse was
humorously waiting for him to "set up the drinks," had resulted in the
establishment by him of a system of fines in the event of similar false
alarms; but, as has been said, the coroner had reigned for several years
as the wealthiest, the most envied and admired of the public officials.
He had invested in mines and real estate, had become a money-lender and
capitalist, and for some time considered himself on the high road to
fortune, when the discovery of gold in the Black Hills caused a sudden
hegira thither of nine-tenths of the shooting element, and the summer of
'76 found Mr. Perkins a changed and embittered man.

"Cheyenne ain't what it used to be," he would regretfully say, as entire
weeks would elapse without a fatal termination of a row; "fellers who
used to shoot on sight only sit around and jaw now. It's gettin' slow as
any d----d one-horse town east of the Mississippi." And in the general
gloom of the situation Mr. Perkins had more than once regretted that he
had not gone to Congress.

It was with a thrill of renewed hope, therefore, that he heard the loud
knocking at his door before dawn, and descending, received with
ill-concealed gratification the message of the commanding officer at
Fort Russell that his services were needed there at once. An officer had
been shot to death in his bedroom. It was one thing to air his
importance before an admiring audience of townspeople; but this--this
was something bordering on bliss. For the time being he could sit in
judgment on the words and deeds of those military satraps at the fort.
Perkins had bundled a jury of his chums into carriages and started out
across the prairie before the smoke from the morning gun had fairly died
away. By the time the men had finished breakfast the jury and the
reporters were at their work, and an awe-stricken group stood