"The other door was busted all to pieces and the ax was lyin' on the step, and the Mexican was lyin' on the ground and a Winchester ball had passed clear through his head." "Who shot him?" asked the lawyer. "I've told you all I know," said the sheep man. "Sallie said the man dropped all of a sudden while he was choppin' at the door, and she never heard no gun shoot. I don't pretend to explain nothin', I'm telling you what happened. You might say somebody in the brush seen him breakin' in the door and shot him, usin' noiseless powder, and then slipped away without leavin' his card, or you might say you don't know nothin' at all about it, as I do." "Do you think--" began the young man. "No, I don't think," said the sheep man, rather shortly. "I said I'd tell you about the mi-ridge I seen, and I told you just as it happened. Is they any coffee left in that pot?" (_Houston Daily Post_, Sunday morning, April 19, 1896.) A Tragedy "By the beard of the Prophet. Oh, Scheherezade, right well hast thou done," said the Caliph, leaning back and biting off the end of a three-for. For one thousand nights Scheherezade No. 2, daughter of the Grand Vizier, had sat at the feet of the mighty Caliph of the Indies relating tales that held the court entranced and breathless. The soft, melodious sound of falling water from the fountain tinkled pleasantly upon the ear. Slaves sprinkled attar of roses upon the tessellated floor, and waved jeweled fans of peacock's feathers in the air. Outside, in the palace gardens the bulbul warbled in the date trees, the hoodoo flitted among the banyan branches, and the dying song of the goo-goo floated in upon the breeze from New York. "And, now, oh, Scheherezade," continued the Caliph, "your contract calls for one more tale. One thousand have you told unto us, and we have rejoiced exceedingly at your narrative powers. Your stories are all new and do not weary us as do the chestnuts of Marshall P. Wilder. You are quite a peach. But, listen, oh, Daughter of the Moon, and first cousin to a phonograph, there is one more yet to come. Let it be one that has never before been related in the Kingdom. If it be thus, thou shalt have 10,000 gold pieces and a hundred slaves at thy command, but if it bear whiskers, then shall thy head pay the forfeit." The Caliph made a sign, and Mesrour, the executioner, stepped to the side of Scheherezade. In his dark hand he held a glittering scimeter. He folded his arms and stood like a statue as the Caliph spoke again. "Now, oh, Scheherezade, let her go. If it be that thou givest us something like that tale No. 475, where the Bagdad merchant was found by his favorite wife at the roof-garden concert, with his typewriter, or No. 684, where the Cadi of a certain town came home late from the lodge with his shoes off and stepped upon a tack, all will be well, but if you work off a Joe Miller on us, verily you get it in the neck."