Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/171

Rh “Jeb,” said the sheriff, “it is a part of the etiquette of suicide. No man effects his exit without a parting word. It would be bad form, Jeb, frightfully bad form.”

“So you guessed it?”

“No,” replied the sheriff, wearily, “my gray matter was allowed me for the purpose of utility. I concluded.”

The prosecuting attorney selected a letter from the package of papers and passed it over to the sheriff. That official examined the envelope carefully, then he slowly opened it and spread the enclosed letter out on the desk before him.

“Octagon Coal Company,” he read slowly, “Miners and Shippers of Coal and Coke, Welch, West Virginia. Robert Gilmore, President. Brown Hirst, Business Manager. All agreements are contingent upon strikes, accidents, and other delays unavoidable or beyond our control.”

The sheriff paused for a moment. “Written at the office,” he observed, “with a pen, on the company's stationery.”

The guardian of order removed his eye-