oom for doubt; and it was a lucky thing, after all, that
the night was so dark, and the city don't furnish many lamps in that part
of the town. Do you think I ought to tell the mayor or some officer about
this?"

"Could you identify either of the men if you should meet him on the
street?"

"I could not, unless I was allowed to examine his back, where the stone
landed."

"Then there's no use of telling anyone else, for no one could help you.
You had better carry a pistol, and take a safer route home after this.
One of these days, perhaps, the whole thing will be explained, but I own
that it is altogether too much for any fellow to find out just now."

It was natural that I should feel nervous the entire day, for there was
every reason to believe we were close upon exciting incidents, in which
fate had ordered that Ben Mayberry and myself would have to make the
initial movements.

Neither Burkhill, the tramp-like looking individual, nor any character to
whom the least suspicion could attach, put in an appearance at the
telegraph office during the day; this was another disappointment to Ben
and myself.

The mayor also was disposed to be uncommunicative, for when I dropped in
on him during the afternoon, he was short in his answers, barely
intimating that everything was in a satisfactory shape. When asked
whether Detective Maxx had revealed himself, he said:

"I have seen nothing of him, and do not care to see him. His help is not
needed."

I am convinced that the action of the famous detective had a great deal
to do with the ill-humor of the mayor, who was generally one of the most
affable of men.

I was pretty well used up, and at eleven o'clock I closed the office and
went home, separating as usual from Ben Mayberry, who, I was satisfied,
intended to know whether anything was amiss before he lay down to
slumber.

Although the impression was general that it was the Mechanics' Bank which
was the objective point of the conspirators, yet the chief of police, as
I have intimated, had stationed his men so as to be ready for instant
use, should it prove to be any one of the moneyed institutions.

Ben Mayberry was so well satisfied that it was the Mechanics' that, after
leaving me, he went in that direction, anxious to see a first-class
burglary attempted and foiled.

The institution, it will be remembered, stood on the corner of one of the
main streets, and a lamp was burning directly opposite. The cashier
repo