Some of the mornings were downright cold, while others were somewhat mild, compared. The rain had threatened but never materialized. Temperatures had dropped to near freezing, but so far that had produced little more than frost on the pumpkins. Still warming up the newspaper office took a couple of hours. The latest edition was ready to deliver, news? Guyer was back at the job, the Pikes were back in town, and the hospital was progressing very nicely, so yes there was some news. There were also some recipes provided by a number of ladies in observance of the coming Harvest Celebration, though to date there had been no announcement of a town gathering for the celebration as there had been in years past, weather permitting. It was early yet, and calling for such a gathering for next month would hardly be a problem.

Phin stood looking out at the street as he did most mornings. A cup of coffee in his hand, a fire in the stove, and the room heating up as best as it would. He watched as the street began to slowly come alive with traffic, both on the boardwalks as well as some horses and all of two wagons on the street. It would not be that way for long, it never was. People had shopping to do or business to conduct. Children were making their way to school, businesses were opening, smoke rising from the stove pipes and chimneys along the street. Another day was beginning in Kalispell Montana a fresh page in its history.

What would that bring for Phin and the Union newspaper? A question that only time would answer. He took a long sip of the black liquid. What news might appear before him, or walk through the door? Would there be some excitement on this new day to report on? One could never predict how a day would proceed, nor what might happen to one, or maybe more of its citizens, births, deaths, sickness.  Every day it seemed, presented new situations, resolutions, and problems to be solved. The hustle and bustle of people on the street seemingly oblivious to what was happening around them.

Life in Kalispell

At the creak of the door opening and the tinkle of the bell announcing a visitor, Phin looked up from the latest edition of the Union He spotted a grievous typographical error right there on page one, the name of the hospital. He had called it Flathead County Hospital, when it was nothing of the kind, it was to be called Kalispell Regional Hospital. That may well bring Miss Steelgrave in to protest the mistake, which wouldn't be so bad.

"Excuse me, Mr. McVey?" she murmured, nearly a whisper as she approached him, "Ya gotta minnet?"

Setting the paper aside he smiled, "Why Miss Tully, of course, of course. Come on in." He greeted. "What is it I can do for you this fine day? Cuppa coffee?" He asked rising to his feet. He liked the young woman, remembering their conversation of a few days past. "Sit down if you're'a mind to." There was another chair next to the desk he used for interviews and taking orders for ads and printing jobs. This was a pleasant surprise. 

Phin poured a second cup for Tully and topped his off. "You take sugar? Sorry to say, I have no milk. Goes bad too quickly around here." He had a bowl of sugar and a clean spoon, he drank his black.

Tully was a most interesting woman, though Phin made no judgments about her, she seemed innocent, though private and skiddish about people, even those she knew, or so it seemed. "So, a wallet you say? Now it would seem someone dropped it, or perhaps someone stole it and then tossed it away." He looked at it, not touching it at first, just appraising its exterior. It was in fine shape, so it was not well used, there were a couple of nicks on the surface, which may have come from rocks when it was dropped or perhaps thrown down.

"Well, shall we see if there is any identification inside, or anything else of value or otherwise." He smiled up at her, the unruly blonde curls flowing out from under that floppy hat, encasing her face.

Phin looked at the wallet and then,

"Jumpin' jehoshaphat, would ya look at that!" she muttered as Phineas opened the wallet, revealing a healthy stack of bills.

"Heavenly days girl! Somebody'll be coming looking for this wallet, that's for sure!" He exclaimed, drawing out the sheaf of bills and spreading them out on his desktop. "Now, we have us a real problem, young lady, the cash money is all that's in this fine piece of leatherwork. Not so much as an initial on it."

He shook his head in disbelief at the lack of identification, not a scrap of paper, or even a receipt of any sort could be found, just the stack of money all fanned out nicely in several denominations, several of which were Twenties, tens and fives. 

He sat back, took up his cup, and had a swallow of the hot coffee. "This would appear to be a genuine mystery, though I would think it will be solved soon enough. And perhaps a nice reward in store for the lucky girl who found it."

Phin appraised the fan of greenbacks once again, "Well, 'squawkin' like a burnt goose' is exactly how I'd expect whoever lost this to sound about now, if not some time back." He smiled as he looked at the money.

"Could be ill-gotten gains, or money drawn out of the bank, or even money a body was carrying for reasons of their own. Which leads us to the problem of what exactly are we to do with this money?" Phin observed, "Maybe we turn it over to Deputy Wentworth, or maybe take it to the bank and hand it over to Mister Wentworth, the bank President, or, we just hold onto it here for now. If you trust me to hold onto it. Near two hundred dollars laying there, somebody's got to be missing it."

But then, what Miss Tully had said also made sense, "unless I come by it wrongly, stole, cheated, conned...then I'd just be lookin' myself, all silent-like." There could be a certain amount of danger involved with this find of hers.