At the same time a train of ambulances and army wagons, containing the colonel and his numerous family, the discharged soldiers, with Longman, Mike, Dandy and much goods, filed out of the fort gates and took the road to St. Agnetta, where they were all to take the train to San Francisco, en route for New York.
CHAPTER VII
A GLAD SURPRISE
“I have found them, ma’am! I have found them! And they are charming—charming!” exclaimed Ran Hay with boyish exultation, bursting into Mrs. Samuel Walling’s parlor with the freedom of an inmate on the morning succeeding his meeting with Cleve and Palma Stuart.
“Sit down, you excitable fellow, and tell me whom you have found. Is it Sir John Franklin and his crew, or is it Mr. Livingstone?” inquired the lady, rising and giving her hand to the visitor.
“Neither, ma’am; though I would give my life to find either if it were possible. But I have found my own dear cousins!” replied Ran, dropping into a chair.
“Your Uncle James Jordan’s children? Those whom you advertised for?”
“His daughter, ma’am; his sole surviving child, Palma, and her husband, Cleve Stuart, who is the only son and sole heir of the late John Stuart, a rich planter of Mississippi. They are a charming young couple, only a few months married.”
“Cleve Stuart?” said Mrs. Walling, musing.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Why, I know him! He used to be a devoted admirer of Lamia Leegh. We all thought that it would certainly be a match. But I fancy she discarded him in favor of the wealthier suitor, your treacherous traveling companion, Gentleman Geff, the rival claimant of Haymore.”