Engineer
was brought in from the ranch. The new General actually came, ostensibly
to inspect the post, but spent twelve hours at Folsom's by Loring's side
to the one devoted to Stevens, and everybody felt that there was a storm
brewing that would break when finally the witnesses for the defense
arrived and the Loring court could meet.

But who would have dreamed there could be such dramatic scene before a
military tribunal?

It came with the third day of the trial. The court had been carefully
selected by old Pecksniff, whose adjutant had obediently signed the
charges drawn up under the chief's directions. There were only nine
officers in the array--"no others being available without manifest
injury to the service"--read the formula of the day. Five were officers
of Stevens' regiment, one a cavalry major, the others of the pay,
commissary and quartermaster's departments. None had known Loring.
Everybody expected him to object to some at least, but he objected to
none. The judge advocate was a vigilant official who made the most of
his opportunity, but his witnesses for the prosecution were, with one
exception, weak; the exception was Nevins. He swore stoutly that he had
given the valuables in Arizona to Loring, and from that day had never
seen them until they were found secreted in Loring's trunk, and, to the
amaze of the court, Loring declined to cross-examine. Petty was a
failure. He wanted to swear to a thousand things that other people had
told him, for of himself he knew nothing, and though the defense never
interposed, the court did. It was all hearsay, and he was finally
excused. Mrs. Burton appeared, but like Mrs. Cluppins of blessed
memory, had more to say of her domestic and personal affairs than the
allegations against the accused. Miss Allyn, said the judge advocate, in
embarrassment, was to have appeared on the afternoon of the second day,
but did not, nor could he find her. She was a most important witness, so
he had been assured by--various persons, but at the last moment she had
apparently deserted the cause of the prosecution. A civil court would
have had power to drag an unwilling witness before it and compel his or
her testimony; a military court has neither, so long as the desired
person is not in the military service, which Miss Allyn and some sixty
million others at that time could not be said to be. A sensation was
"sprung" on the court at this juncture by the defense. It magnanimously
informed