Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) ELEVEN POSSIBLE CASES. FRANK R. STOCKTON, FRANKLIN FYLES, JOAQUIN MILLER, MAURICE THOMPSON, INGERSOLL LOCKWOOD, EDGAR FAWCETT, BRAINARD GARDNER SMITH, KIRKE MUNROE, NYM CRINKLE, ANNA KATHERINE GREEN, AND Q. CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: _LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE._ 1891. [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.] CONTENTS. 1. THE ONLY GIRL AT OVERLOOK, _Franklin Fyles_ 2. A THING THAT GLISTENED, _Frank R. Stockton_ 3. A LION AND A LIONESS, _Joaquin Miller_ 4. THE CHEATED JULIET, _Q._ 5. THE MYSTIC KREWE, _Maurice Thompson_ 6. STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A MILLION DOLLARS, _Ingersoll Lockwood_ 7. A LOST DAY, _Edgar Fawcett_ 8. A TRAGEDY OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES, _Brainard Gardner Smith_ 9. THE BUSHWHACKER'S GRATITUDE, _Kirke Munroe_ 10. THE END OF ALL, _Nym Crinkle_ 11. SHALL HE MARRY HER? _Anna Katherine Green_ THE ONLY GIRL AT OVERLOOK. BY FRANKLIN FYLES. CHAPTER I. Two names were used for the only girl at Overlook. In addressing her, the men of the place always said "Miss Warriner." In mentioning her, they often said "Mary Mite." The reason for this distinctive difference was revealed by the sight of Miss Mary Warriner herself, as she sat on a high stool behind a rude desk, under a roughly-boarded shelter, and with rapid fingers clicked the key of a telegraphic instrument. There was a perfect poise of quiet self-possession which would have been very impressive dignity in an older and bigger person, and which, although here limited by eighteen years and one hundred pounds, still made a demand for respectful treatment. Therefore the men, when in her presence, never felt like calling her anything else than "Miss Warriner." If she had been less like a stately damsel in miniature, and more like such a child as she was in size only; if her employment had been something not so near to science as that of telegraphy, and not so far off from juvenile simplicity; if her brown hair had been loosely curled, instead of closely coiled, and if her skirts had stopped at her ankles instead of reaching to her feet, then she might have been nicknamed "Mary Mite" within her own hearing, as she was beyond it, by those who described her smallness in a sobriquet. There may have been a variance of opinion among those dwellers at Overlook who had made any estimate of her composure, but if there was one who believed that she merely assumed a reserve of manner because she was among two hundred men, he had not yet tried his chances of exceptional acquaintance.