, the part
that was transacting business, so to speak--that wasn't in the least
alarmed. I fancy all born commanders are built like that. Did you ever
see General Grant?"

Thorpe shook his head.

"What reminded me of him--there is an account in his Memoirs of how he
felt when he first was given a command, at the beginning of the Civil
War. He was looking about for the enemy, who was known to be in the
vicinity, and the nearer he got to where this enemy probably was, the
more he got timid and unnerved, he says, until it seemed as if cowardice
were getting complete mastery of him. And then suddenly it occurred to
him that very likely the enemy was just as afraid of him as he was of
the enemy, and that moment his bravery all returned to him. He went in
and gave the other man a terrible thrashing. It doesn't apply to your
case, particularly--but I fancy that all really brave men have those
inner convictions of weakness, even while they are behaving like
lions. Those must have been extraordinarily interesting experiences of
yours--on the plains. I wish I could have seen something of that part
of America when I was there last year. Unfortunately, it didn't come my
way."

"I thought I remembered your saying you'd been West."

Plowden smiled. "I'm afraid I did think it was West at the time. But
since my return I've been warned that I mustn't call Chicago West. That
was as far as I went. I had some business there, or thought I had. When
my father died, that was in 1884, we found among his papers a lot of
bonds of some corporation purporting to be chartered by the State of
Illinois. Our solicitors wrote several letters, but they could find out
nothing about them, and there the matter rested. Finally, last year,
when I decided to make the trip, I recollected these old bonds, and
took them with me. I thought they might at least pay my expenses. But
it wasn't the least good. Nobody knew anything about them. It seems they
related to something that was burned up in the Great Fire--either that,
or had disappeared before that time. That fire seems to have operated
like the Deluge--it cancelled everything that had happened previously.
My unhappy father had a genius for that kind of investment. I shall
have great pleasure in showing you tomorrow, a very picturesque and
comprehensive collection of Confederate Bonds. Their face value is, as I
remember it, eighty thousand dollars--that is, sixteen thousand pounds.
I would entertain with