would report me to the government, and I had no doubt they would.

As soon as I got to Santa Fe I went to see General Harney, ex-governor
of New Mexico. I told him what I had done and why I did it. General
Harney told me he was glad I had notified him right away and said he
would explain this transportation of the patent office books to the
fourth assistant postmaster. I gave him a detailed account of my
conversation regarding the disposition of the books to the postmaster
the trip before, which conversation he put in the form of an affidavit
and took it to the postmaster to verify. The postmaster refused to sign
the document, saying that he was no such a fool as that. General Harney
reported to the government who ordered the postmaster to rent a room in
which to store the government books now in possession of the stage
company. I knew that the postmaster was going to get these orders, so I
told Mr. Parker, proprietor of the hotel (called in those days the
"Fonda") that he could rent the room to the postmaster for $15 per
month. He would draw $45 per quarter and net the stage company $30. We
conductors made the drivers haul all the books over to the postoffice,
and when we had put all inside that we could get in there, obstructing
the light from the one solitary window, we put several thousand up on
top of the postoffice. Everybody was looking at us and everybody else
was laughing.

* * * * *

In a squealy little old voice the postmaster came out and told us to
take them to "Parker's Fonda," that he had rented the room for the
storage of such trash. Thus it came that the books were placed back in
the same room in which they were formerly stored, but they were now
paying the stage company rent for "their berths" and continued three