There were perhaps three hundred Legion members in the large room they entered. General Wood appeared almost at once, the colonel from Fort Crook beside him.
Stacey gazed at the general with interest. A clear honest face, he thought swiftly, with no appearance either of bitterness or the autocratic spirit. A good soldier from his record—not a doubt of it; but why in the world had such a man chosen to be a soldier, and how had he come through it looking like that?
The general wasted no time. “There are long lists of men implicated in this business,” he said to the three hundred. “Your job will be to go out and get them. When you go to make an arrest use no more force than is necessary and use all the force that is necessary. Remember you are sent for a certain man. Come back with him. Bring him in alive if possible. But bring him in. Officers will now report to Colonel M——.” And the general left the room abruptly.
Presently Stacey and Traile received their lists—ten names apiece.
“We’d like just four men for escort—two each, sir, if it’s all the same to you. May we pick the four?” Traile asked.
“Certainly,” said the colonel. “Get service revolvers for yourselves and rifles for your men of the ordnance officer. Bring your prisoners here to police headquarters as you get them.”
“Pshaw!” the lieutenant remarked in disgust, as they were speeding swiftly homeward, with, in the tonneau behind them, the four men, armed now and in uniform, whom Stacey had chosen as escort the day before. “Pshaw! What’s twenty names?”
They left their guard in the hall of Traile’s house, went into the library, and copied their lists for the other four men who were waiting there.
“All right,” Stacey remarked. “Start at it. As soon as any one’s located send one of your men around to report to us. And you’d better detail some one to see that he doesn’t get away in the meantime.”
“Yes, sir,” said Peters. “I guess you’ll find that all right, Captain. We’ve worked out a plan.”