A search was at once made, and his lifeless body found near the old prospect shaft.
A bullet wound in his temple, and the weapon still clutched in his hand, told of the maniac’s suicide.
The people of Gold Bluff were astonished at the rapidity with which history was being made. The sheriff was missing, and his absence gave color to Boast’s statement about the sheriff being an accomplice in the stage robbery.
The undisputed owners of the Peacock mine, Casey and Gibbons, the multi-millionaires, were entirely vindicated by Boast’s letter, and not a shadow of suspicion rested against them; indeed, the citizens of Gold Bluff suddenly remembered that Mr. Henry Casey and Stephen Gibbons, Esq., were most excellent gentlemen. It was astonishing to find how many “friends” flocked around them to tender their congratulations.
It was Thanksgiving night, and Vance, with the members of the Bonifield household, was seated before the open grate, where a cheerful fire burned brightly. They had been talking it all over, and the Colonel, in a subdued but satisfied way, thanked God that he had been permitted to live long enough to see a fulfillment of his life’s dream.
