The Dover mail was in its usual genial position that the guard suspected the passengers, the passengers suspected one another and the guard, they all suspected everybody else, and the coachman was sure of nothing but the horses; as to which cattle he could with a clear conscience have taken his oath on the two Testaments that they were not fit for the journey.
Once more, the Dover mail struggled on, with the jack-boots of its passengers squashing along by its side.
The mail coach doors were on their hinges, the lining was replaced, the ironwork was as good as new, the paint was restored, the lamps were alight; cushions and greatcoats were on every coach-box, porters were thrusting parcels into every boot, guards were stowing away letter-bags, hostlers were dashing pails of water against the renovated wheels; numbers of men were pushing about, fixing poles into every coach; passengers arrived, portmanteaus were handed up, horses were put to; in short, it was perfectly clear that every mail there, was to be off directly.
He was dressed as a mail guard, with a wig on his head and most enormous cuffs to his coat, and had a lantern in one hand, and a huge blunderbuss in the other, which he was going to stow away in his little arm-chest.
I guess you'll be glad to git out of this, with all them
mail bags jamming round you."
"By the way," he said, "as it is such a wild night, you will oblige me very much if you will tell the engine-driver that there will be a five pound note for himself and his companion if we catch the mail. Inspector!"
I had taken a seat, and they assured me that the train would not leave for at least ten minutes, as the mails weren't in.
I bet five hundred that sixty days from now I pull up at the Tivoli door with the Dyea mail."
On it, lashed with thongs of moose-hide, were the light canvas bags that contained the mail, and the food and gear for dogs and men.
Ends had the address, and the check would be
mailed the first thing in the morning.
"The Bombay
Mail," says Captain Hodgson, and looks at his watch.
For all you know, the next
mail may bring a letter from him.
The first San Francisco newspaper to which I
mailed it never acknowledged receipt of the manuscript, but held on to it.
It so happened that my first check had just arrived by the eight o'clock post; and my position should be appreciated when I say that I had to cash it to obtain a Daily
Mail.
'Yes,' said the man, 'along of them
Mails. They ought to be prosecuted and fined, them
Mails.
