lines of care and sorrow. His voice was low, his
manner grave, courteous, even cold. He was studying his man and
discussing in his mind how far he might confide in him.

Obedient to the general's invitation, Stuyvesant had taken a chair close
to the commander's table and sat in silence awaiting further question.
At last it came.

"You say he left nothing--no trace--behind?"

"There was nothing to leave, general. He had only a suit of underwear,
in which he escaped from the car. The men say he had had money and a
valise filled with things which he strove to keep from sight of any of
his fellows. They say that he befriended a tough character by the name
of Murray, who had enlisted with him, and they think Murray knows
something about him."

"Where is Murray now?" asked the chief.

"In the guard-house at the Presidio. He gave the corporal in charge a
good deal of trouble and was placed under guard the morning they reached
the city. They had to spend the night with the Iowa regiment at Oakland
Pier."

Again the gray-haired general gave himself to thought. "Could you tell
how he was dressed when he disappeared?" he finally asked.

"A young man in the second sleeper gave him a pair of worn blue serge
trousers and his morocco slippers. Somebody else contributed a _neglige_
shirt and a black silk travelling cap. He was wearing these when last
I spoke to him at Sacramento, where he would not eat anything. I--I had
wired ahead for dinner for them."

"Yes," said the general with sudden indignation in his tone, "and I'm
told the company refused to reimburse you. What excuse did they give?"

"It's of little consequence, sir," laughed Stuyvesant. "The loss hasn't
swamped me."

"That's as may be," answered the general. "It's the principle involved.
That company is coining money by the thousands transporting troops at
full rates, and some of the cars it furnished were simply abominable.
What was the excuse given?"

"They said, or rather some official wrote, that they wouldn't reimburse
us because they had already had to sustain the loss of that car due to
the carelessness of our men, and their own train-hands, general, knew
there was no smoking and the men were all asleep. Foster had a very
narrow escape, and Corporal Connelly was badly burned lugging Murray
out."

The general took from a stack of correspondence at his right hand a
letter on club paper, studied it a moment, and then glanced up at
Stuyvesant. "Was not Co