The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg. Марк Твен

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      A long silence followed; both were sunk in thought. At last the wife looked up and said:

      “I know what you are thinking, Edward.”

      Richards had the embarrassed look of a person who is caught.

      “I am ashamed to confess it, Mary, but – ”

      “It’s no matter, Edward, I was thinking the same question myself.”

      “I hope so. State it.”

      “You were thinking, if a body could only guess out what the remark was that Goodson made to the stranger.”

      “It’s perfectly true. I feel guilty and ashamed. And you?”

      “I’m past it. Let us make a pallet here; we’ve got to stand watch till the bank vault opens in the morning and admits the sack.. Oh dear, oh dear – if we hadn’t made the mistake!”

      The pallet was made, and Mary said:

      “The open sesame – what could it have been? I do wonder what that remark could have been. But come; we will get to bed now.”

      “And sleep?”

      “No; think.”

      “Yes; think.”

      By this time the Coxes too had completed their spat and their reconciliation, and were turning in – to think, to think, and toss, and fret, and worry over what the remark could possibly have been which Goodson made to the stranded derelict; that golden remark; that remark worth forty thousand dollars, cash.

      The reason that the village telegraph-office was open later than usual that night was this: The foreman of Cox’s paper was the local representative of the Associated Press. One might say its honorary representative, for it wasn’t four times a year that he could furnish thirty words that would be accepted. But this time it was different. His despatch stating what he had caught got an instant answer: