Part 5

After listening to his story, Mrs. Wickliffe said that her memory was so treacherous that she really couldn't say for certain whether or not she gave the conductor the shining dollar, but that if she did she must have received it from her son in Germantown, Pa., from a visit to whose house she had just returned, and who before her departure had exchanged some money for her. She added that, as she took no interest in coin collecting, a dollar was simply a dollar to her and that she thought a woman was very foolish to take up with a fad which might ruin her happiness.

Her unknown caller thought so, too, admired her taste in millinery, took the address of her son, and, clutching the fatal coin more firmly than ever, drove back to Erie, where he boarded the New York night express.

To the young man who still clutched the silver dollar sleep was impossible. A multitude of exciting fancies crossed his brain. The developments he hoped to bring about, the curious solution of the problem, its effect upon his future, and the future of one so dear to him,—all this murdered sleep for him as effectually as did the crime on Lady Macbeth's soul. It drove him into the smoking-car, where he sank into a seat and planned and conjectured between puffs of Havana smoke until the train reached Albany. So completely absorbed had he become in the solution of this knotty problem in which his accident of the morning had involved him, and so convinced was he that the information must be for the time kept a secret, that he actually began to dread what was clearly inevitable,—the explanation he must shortly make to his wife.

His inclination was to tell her all. His duty to others forbade this. After pondering over the matter, he decided to explain that he had a happy surprise in store for her, one that had an important bearing on their future, and which unfortunately necessitated a change in their plans for a honeymoon in Europe.

This, on reaching the Delavan House, he expressed to a very pretty and very anxious little woman who was awaiting him, together with a good many other things not necessary to this story. And, instead of the steamer for Europe, the reunited pair took a train for Philadelphia. Early the next day the young man presented himself at the office of Dr. James Wickliffe, at Germantown, who smilingly admitted having given the shining dollar to his mother two days before. He had received the coin from a patient, a letter-carrier named John Lennon, and remembered it because of the following strange story, related to him by Lennon himself.

A few days before, the carrier was engaged in delivering mail from door to door along Vine Street, Philadelphia, when a zigzag trip across the street and back again brought him to the narrow stairway of a dingy brick house, in front of which hung an enormous brass key bearing the word "Locksmith." Here he paused to draw a little parcel from his bundle. As he did so he heard something fall with a metallic clink upon the stone pavement. He looked and saw that it was a silver dollar, which rolled toward the gutter and came to a stop close by the curb. Hastening to pick it up, he instantly dropped it with a cry of pain.

_The coin was almost red hot!_

The letter-carrier stood nursing his hand and thinking for two or three minutes. Silver dollars do not commonly drop out of the sky. But that this one should thus fall like a meteorite in a condition too heated for handling was certainly more than surprising—it was astounding! The man looked up at the dingy brick house and examined it attentively, noting that the ground floor was occupied as a green grocery and that all of the windows were shut save one in the third story.

Then he kicked the mysterious coin into a puddle, fished it out again with his fingers, and put it into his trousers' pocket. He was about to investigate further, when some small boys called his attention to the fact that it was the first day of April, whereupon he proceeded on his way. He gave no further thought to the matter until that night, when he found that his thumb and forefinger had been so badly burned as to require treatment.

The next morning he called upon the doctor, who dressed the painful hand and received the mysterious coin in payment for his services.

That night, behind locked doors in one of the officers' rooms of the United States Mint in Chestnut Street, two men were engaged in a long whispered conference. The wife of one of the men, as she sat in her room in the Continental Hotel, anxiously waiting for her husband, was beginning to wonder whether, after all, marriage was a failure!

Two days later, in speaking of the seizure of over forty thousand bogus silver dollars and the clever capture of three of the most dangerous counterfeiters that ever attacked the currency of the United States, the _Daily News_ said:—

"The most remarkable part of the whole story is that one of the coins, fresh from the machine of one of the counterfeiters, fell out of a third-story window near which he was working, was picked up while almost red hot by a letter-carrier, and passed as genuine through various hands until it reached Buffalo, where, by the merest accident, it came into the possession of Mr. Ansel Hobart of the Secret Service. That gentleman noticed an imperfection at one point of its rim, and succeeded in tracing the coin to the headquarters of the gang on Vine Street in this city, where, under the cloak of a locksmith shop and green grocery business, six hundred of the spurious coins were turned out daily. So admirably were these counterfeits executed as to defy scrutiny save by experts of the Government. The coins were not cast in molds after the ordinary fashion, but were struck with a die, and plated so thickly with silver as to withstand tests by acids. The defect which led to the discovery was found only in the one coin already spoken of, and it is supposed that it was this defect that caused the piece to spring from the finishing machine and fall out of the window."

And the New York newspapers of three days later contained the intelligence that the White Star steamer "Majestic," which sailed for Liverpool that day, had among her passengers Mr. and Mrs. Ansel J. Hobart, of Chicago, Illinois.

Advertisements.

"I cannot speak too enthusiastically of what my dressmaker has done for the last two seasons. All the former annoyance of heavy sleeves (which are also very hot in warm weather) has been done away with, and it is such pleasure to me to use no special care of the skirt when either riding or boating as I am sure every fold will instantly disappear the moment I walk."

"What different materials do you use to accomplish this?"

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"How much does this really add to the weight of the skirt without any lining?"

"My dressmaker says that an entire skirt if it were made up as a separate skirt of seven yards would weigh but 12 ounces, and if one should use their 170/3 it is almost as light as air itself."

"Why, these figures are new to me; what do they mean?"

"I took pains to investigate that, and their =10/4=, =10/5= and =98/3= is the style usually used for skirts and can be had in either gray or black, though of course they make heavier grades, principally used by tailors."

"Either the =84/3=, =146/3=, =170/3=, =184/4= or =200/4=, is all right for thin sleeves, so that if the dealer has not all these styles he ought to have one surely."

"I am very glad for this information, for I confess that while I have been forced to follow the fashion. It has been at great discomfort, especially in the hot weather, with what I have had used for linings; and I had really no knowledge of these different grades, or in fact that HAIR CLOTH CRINOLINE was really the perfect thing to be used for both skirts and sleeves."

Hair Cloth Crinoline

Ask your Dealer for Ours

=It Lasts Forever=

We do not sell at Retail

American Hair Cloth Company, PAWTUCKET, R.I. CHARLES E. PERVEAR, Agent

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SEARCH LIGHT

=Is what it is named.=

It is =not= a signal to show that a bicycle is coming, but an =aid=, recognized by such riders as R. P. Searle, who says:—

GENTLEMEN: I have just finished my second record-breaking trip from Chicago to New York. I used your lamp on all my night runs, sometimes running at a speed of fifteen miles per hour in the dark. I was only able to make this fast time by the splendid light which I was enabled to obtain with the use of your lamp. I used your lamp because I considered it the best in the world to-day, and it has far exceeded my expectations. Yours very truly,

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Points of Superiority over every other Lantern Made:

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BRIDGEPORT BRASS CO., Bridgeport, Conn., or 19 Murray Street, New York.

=The Stomach was made for a purpose—a food wholly digested was not what the Almighty intended—=

=No Child Can Live=

=upon these thin, slippery Foods, but must have something to satisfy the stomach in order to give development and growth.=

=Ridge's Food= has all the requirements; but =it does need boiling=, and care =after= boiling, and a Mother that is not ready to take this care is a very queer Mother. We have never known, in our =30 years of experience=, of a single case of indigestion, loss of sleep, skin disease, or scurvy while faithfully using =Ridge's Food=.

The stomach requires action—it is so constructed that from the very first it is made for action. With the youngest infant the quantity of nourishment from the natural food (the mother's milk) is much less, because the stomach is incapable of taking care of as much as it can later, but at the same time action is going on, and nature does its work as the child grows, so it can take stronger food; therefore, the special directions which have been the result of experience so adapt themselves to the age of the child as to fulfill those requirements.

Little babies cannot be successfully fed daily by pouring hot water on something that makes food. =It must be properly cooked=, and properly prepared especially for the babies' delicate stomachs, if you wish to save them.

It has been said by some that children could not assimilate starch, yet we believe it is a proper carbon to have in food. The only carbon in many foods is sugar. Scurvy is not uncommonly a result of the continued use of food not sufficiently nutritious. The disfiguring eczema seen on the face and scalp is a result from the same cause.

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=Ridge's Food, Used for 30 Years, Still Unexcelled.=

WOOLRICH & CO., Sole Mfrs., Palmer, Mass.

GOFF'S BRAND IS THE BEST MADE

"For Dress Binding it is Unequaled."

This is the opinion of experienced Dressmakers who have tried so-called substitutes during the past thirty years.

RED SPOOL, five yards, mailed for 8 cts., stamps, or BLACK SPOOL, 3¼ yards, 5 cts., if you cannot find the proper shade at the stores.

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ANNOUNCEMENT.

The Black Cat

... FOR ...

NOVEMBER, 1895,

Will contain the following Original and Complete Stories:

A Calaveras Hold-Up. By Roberta Littlehale.

A vivid account of an actual California stage robbery, linked with a touching love-story, told in the writer's graphic and individual style.

From a Trolley Post. By Margaret Dodge.

A comedy-drama of the city streets, in which a pocket edition of a Texas cowboy and a hand-organ monkey are the chief actors.

An Andenken. By Julia Magruder.

An absorbing and unusual story of artist life, love, and adventure, whose scene is laid in the Tyrolean Alps.

The Man from Maine. By J. D. Ellsworth.

Some picturesque facts showing that prohibition doesn't always prohibit.

A Wedding Tombstone. By Clarice Irene Clinghan.

A curiously fascinating tale of New England village life, showing the same unconventional charm as the author's prize story, "Six Months in Hades," for which she received $1.000.

The Other One. By A. H. Gibson.

A gruesome but impressively interesting story of robbery, murder, and terrible retribution, whose startling ending cannot possibly be foreseen.

Stateroom Six. By William Albert Lewis.

A dramatic incident of Mississippi steamboat travel twenty years ago, told just as it happened.

Her Eyes, Your Honor! By M. D. Umbstaetter.

A famous criminal court trial, a mysterious woman whose life hinges on circumstantial evidence, and a legal trap resulting in an unparalleled climax are the features of this stirring tale.

THE BLACK CAT is issued monthly at five cents a copy. If your newsdealer hasn't it, and won't get it for you, send fifty cents to the undersigned, and it will be mailed to you, postpaid, for one year.

The Shortstory Publishing Company, 144 High Street, Boston, Mass.

T^{he} Hook That's Flat

The Hook that shows isn't so good as the Hook that doesn't. There's no show to the Singer Hook and Eye. Sold everywhere.

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The Ink used in printing The Black Cat is manufactured by Geo. H. Morrill & Co., Boston, Mass.

Williams' Shaving Soap

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Sold by dealers everywhere.

THE J. B. WILLIAMS CO., GLASTONBURY, CONN. London, 64 Great Russel St., W. C.

The Atlantic Monthly.

=Important Announcements for the Fall of 1895.=

The publishers take pleasure in announcing an unusual amount of good fiction. Early issues of the Atlantic will contain =The Apparition of Gran'ther Hill=, by _Rowland E. Robinson_; =Pilgrim Station=, by _Mary Hallock Foote_; =Athenaise, a Creole Story=, by _Kate Chopin_; =The End of the Terror=, by _Robert Wilson_, a Southern writer. Aside from these, there will be stories by Mrs. _Wiggin, Henry James, L. Dougall, Ellen Mackubin_, and others.