rming with people. Prospectors, land-buyers,
traders, merchants, and a miscellaneous army of railroad men were
everywhere. No time had been afforded in which to build suitable
structures for housing the ever-increasing population, and the town
presented the appearance of a huge encampment; nearly one-half of the
city being composed of canvas tents. In the hotels, on the corners of
the streets, and in the places of business, the universal topic of
conversation was the phenomenal growth of the city, and the grand
prospects which the future had in store for this embryotic western
metropolis. Along the railroad, a perfect army of workmen were
assembled, awaiting their orders for the day. Graders, tie-men,
track-layers and construction corps, were already on the spot, and they
too seemed imbued with the same spirit of enthusiasm which filled their
more wealthy and ambitious neighbors in the city. As may readily be
imagined, crime and immorality followed hand in hand with the march of
improvement. The gambler and the harlot plied their vocations in the
full light of day, and as yet unrebuked by the ruling powers of a
community, too newly located to assume the dignity of enacting laws.

The detective made his way through the streets, mentally noting these
things, while his efforts were directed to finding some trace of Thomas
Duncan. He made a systematic tour of the hotels, or more properly
speaking, the boarding-houses with which the town was filled, and after
numerous disappointments, was at last successful in learning something
definite of the movements of his man. At a hotel called the "Windsor,"
he found the unmistakable signature he was looking for, and was
convinced that Tom Moore of Chicago had preceded him but a few days.
Exhibiting his talismanic photograph to the proprietor, he was informed
that Duncan had been there some ten days before, and after remaining a
day or two, had gone over to the military cantonments, some four or five
miles distant, where a detachment of United States soldiers were
quartered.

Procuring a horse, Manning started for the cantonment, where he was
kindly received by Major Bell, the officer in charge, who informed him
that Duncan had been there some days before, and that he had remained
about the camp for several days, playing cards with the soldiers and
enjoying himself generally. During his stay he had purchased a pony from
a Crow Indian, and while he was at the cantonment he rode into B