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8 member had been conducted at first by conversations up the stairway, but, after the capture of Bord McGovern, Mabel's heart had softened, and Van Clees, greatly delighted, had accepted his clerk as his future son-in-law. It was father Van Clees himself who was coming down the stairway. Odd to remark, Mr. Hart called his employer by a nick-name.

"I say, Van," he said, "we'll have to get a boom on this town somehow. Did you ever see anything so dead as that?"

He nodded his head toward the square, where two or three spectral-looking horses, tied to a well-gnawed hitching post, were the only living things in sight.

"There was a man here last week going to put in a lumber yard," said Mr. Van Clees, yawning, and taking a position by his clerk's side. "Look here, Newt, how would you like to go to Omaha to-morrow, and buy a bill of goods? I think we could do better than ordering by mail. Look at them cheeses last week."

"Why, certainly, I will go," said Hart, turning. "There are some things I would like to get there too." He had in his mind a ring among the other things.