No
mystery THERE; nothing to clear up; subsequent revelations only
impertinence. Nothing for any ghost to do--who meant business.
More than that, over forty murders, same old kind, committed every
year in Calaveras, and no spiritual post obits coming due every
anniversary; no assessments made on the peace and quiet of the
surviving community. I tell you what, boys, I've always been
inclined to throw off on the Cave City ghost for that alone. It's
a bad precedent, sir. If that kind o' thing is going to obtain in
the foot-hills, we'll have the trails full of chaps formerly
knocked over by Mexicans and road agents; every little camp and
grocery will have stock enough on hand to go into business, and
where's there any security for surviving life and property, eh?
What's your opinion, Judge, as a fair-minded legislator?"
Of course there was no response. Yet it was part of the Doctor's
system of aggravation to become discursive at these moments, in the
hope of interruption, and he continued for some moments to dwell on
the terrible possibility of a state of affairs in which a gentleman
could no longer settle a dispute with an enemy without being
subjected to succeeding spiritual embarrassment.
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