opular and prominent "boomer"
and citizen. Gradually it dawned upon them that, in jealous hatred of
the young soldier whom Folsom's lovely daughter seemed to favor, he had
first sought to undermine him, then to ruin and finally to make way
with, even while at the same time covering the tracks of his own
criminality. It was Elinor Folsom's lover, Lieutenant Dean, who
horsewhipped him for good and sufficient reasons. It was Elinor's father
who bribed him with a big and sorely-needed loan to prefer no charges
against the boy. It was Burleigh who almost immediately after this
tremendous episode had secured the sending of Lieutenant Dean on a
mission so fraught with peril that the chances were ten to one against
his ever getting through alive. Who could have "posted" Birdsall but
Burleigh? Who could say what the amount of his shortage really was? The
key of the big safe was gone with him, and in that safe at the time of
the general's visit were at least fifteen thousand dollars. "Old
Pecksniff," commanding officer at Fort Emory, had wired to department
headquarters. An expert safe-opener was ordered out from Chicago, and
right in the midst of all the turmoil there suddenly appeared upon the
scene a blue-eyed young man, with pale features, clear-cut and strong, a
light brown mustache that shaded his mouth, and, though he wore no
uniform, the rumor went round that this was Lieutenant Loring of the
Engineers. Infantry and cavalry, commissaries and quartermasters,
doctors and sutlers, the denizens of Gate City well knew as attachments
of the army, but what the mischief was an Engineer? Loring put up at
Gate City's new hotel, simply registering as from Omaha, but that he
bore credentials and was a man of mark, Gate City learned from the fact
that Colonel Stevens himself had met him on arrival and wished to take
him out to the fort, and was ill-pleased when Mr. Loring explained that
his business would be best performed in town. Gate City followed the
young man with eager eyes, confident that Engineer must be the army name
for detective. He studied the hotel register. He curiously examined all
relics of the late lamented Newhall, who disappeared before Burleigh. He
questioned the clerks at the corral, reconnoitered the neighborhood,
asked what were their means of defense, turned inside out a worn yet
shapely boot that had been the captain's, bade man after man to describe
that worthy, and finally walked away from the depot, having pi