manner, and then pushed on; but the stranger followed,
out of sight of the sentry now, and wanted to continue the conversation.

"Sure he ain't in the cavalry?" asked the same man.

"Cocksure!" was the blunt reply. "What's it to you, anyhow?"

"Oh, nothin'; thought I'd seen him before. Know his name?"

"Name's Benton, far as I know. Come on, Hunter," said Clarke, obviously
unwilling to stay longer in such society, and little more was thought of
it for the time being; but now the provost-marshal's assistant wished
further particulars. Was there anything unusual about the questioner's
teeth? And a hundred men looked up in surprise and suddenly rearoused
interest.

"Yes, sir," said Clarke, "one tooth was missing, upper jaw, next the big
eye-tooth;" and as the witness stood down the general and the
questioning officer beamed on each other and smiled.

An adjournment was necessitated during the early afternoon. Lieutenant
Ray's statement was desired, also that of Private Connelly of the
artillery, and an effort had been made through the officers of the
cavalry at Paco to find some of the recruits who were of the detachment
now quite frequently referred to in that command as "the singed cats."
But it transpired that most of them had been assigned to troops of their
regiment not yet sent to Manila, only half the regiment being on
duty--foot duty at that--in the Philippines. The only man among them who
had travelled with Foster from Denver as far as Sacramento was the young
recruit, Mellen. He was on outpost, but would be relieved and sent to
Ermita as quickly as possible.

Connelly, said the surgeon at the Cuartel de Meysic, was too ill to be
sent thither, unless on a matter of vital importance, and Sandy Ray,
hastening from Maidie's bedside in response to a summons, was met by the
tidings that a recess had been ordered, and that he would be sent for
again when needed.

Everywhere in Malate, Ermita, Paco, and, for that matter, the barracks
and quarters of Manila, the astonishing story was the topic of all
tongues that day. Among the regulars by this time the tale of Foster's
devotion to Maidie Ray was well known, while that of Stuyvesant's later
but assiduous courtship was rapidly spreading.

Men spoke in murmurs and with sombre faces, and strove to talk lightly
on other themes, but the tragedy, with all the honored names it
involved, weighed heavily upon them. Stuyvesant came to them, to be
sure, a total stranger, b