n town. When they promised to take care of little Kate
I didn't care what happened to me. The money Mrs. Clancy has--except
perhaps two hundred dollars--all belongs to Lieutenant Hayne, since he
paid off every cent that was stolen from Captain Hull."

Supplemented by Mrs. Clancy's rueful and incoherent admissions, Clancy's
story did its work. Mrs. Clancy could not long persist in her various
denials after her husband's confession was brought to her ears, and she
was totally unable to account satisfactorily for the possession of so
much money. Little Kate had been too young to grasp the full meaning of
what Gower said to her mother in that hurried interview; but her
reiterated statements that he came late at night, before the regiment
got home, and knocked at the door until he waked them up, and her mother
cried when he came in, he looked so different, and had spectacles, and a
patch on his cheek, and ranch clothes, and he only stayed a little
while, and told her mother he must go back to the mountains, the police
were on his track,--she knew now he spoke of having deserted,--and he
gave her mother lots of money, for she opened and counted it afterwards
and told her it must all go to papa to get some one out of trouble,--all
were so clear and circumstantial that at last the hardened woman began
to break down and make reluctant admissions. When an astute sheriff's
officer finally told her that he knew where he could lay hands on
Sergeant Gower, she surrendered utterly. So long as he was out of the
way,--could not be found,--she held out; but the prospect of dragging
into prison with her the man who had spurned her in years gone by and
was proof against her fascinations was too alluring. She told all she
could at his expense. He had ridden eastward after his desertion, and,
making his way down the Missouri, had stopped at Yankton and gone thence
to Kansas City, spending much of his money. He had reached Denver with
the rest, and there--she knew not how--had made or received more, when
he heard of the fact that Captain Hull had turned over his property to
Lieutenant Hayne just before he was killed, and that the lieutenant was
now to be tried for failing to account for it. He brought her enough to
cover all he had taken, but--here she lied--strove to persuade her to go
to San Francisco with him. She promised to think of it if he would leave
the money,--which he did, swearing he would come for her and it. That
was why she dare