"Well, I'm right glad to see you again," said Green; "step into the bar-room and take a 'smile' with me."
"I can't very well leave the office just now," said the clerk.
"Oh, yes you can," said Green; "your friend there will look after the office for a few minutes; come along."
"Wait here until I come back, will you?" the clerk asked Miller, as he went off with Green.
"As soon as the clerk had left the office, Miller quietly extracted Pattmore's letter from the box."—Page 157.
As soon as the clerk had left the office, Miller quietly extracted Pattmore's letter from the box. He had marked its appearance so well that he only needed one glance to identify it and he secured it so quickly that none of the crowd outside the desk noticed any movement on his part. In a few minutes the clerk returned to the desk, and Miller lounged out into the bar-room, whence he hurried over to meet me at the Globe Hotel. He there gave me the letter, which was addressed:
"Mrs. Annie Thayer,
"Chicago,
"Illinois."
I carefully opened it by a simple process, which did not leave any evidence that the envelope had been tampered with. The letter began: "My own dear Annie," and the writer went on to caution Mrs. Thayer that she must not be alarmed at the news he was about to tell her. He said that some of his enemies had started a report that he had poisoned his late wife. He had no doubt that the Whig newspapers would spread and magnify these reports; still, he had no fears that they would be of any permanent injury to him, since his friend, coroner Van Valkenburgh, had agreed to hold an inquest, and there would be no difficulty in proving his innocence. He begged her to excuse the haste and brevity of the note, as he only had time to dash off a few lines to assure her that all was well, and to warn her not to become alarmed at anything she might see in the newspapers. The letter was signed: "Ever your loving and devoted husband,