Either wait for me or leave your address.
Yours, &c.,
M. E. Martin.
I called but failed to find Martin, and later I received the following from him:
Mr. Shaffer:
I waited for you all the early part of the day, at B & F's, and then left a note for you, requesting you to leave your address.
Am unwell; if it is important you should see me before morning, please come up to my hotel, Gramercy Park House, if not, please meet me at B & F's, nine to nine thirty, t-morrow morning.
Yours truly,
Martin.
I met him in the morning, as appointed. He was hungry to meet me, just as I wanted it.
I found Mr. Martin to be a man evidently well fitted for the job, in appearance tall, rather lank, energetic and gentlemanly. We visited off and on, nearly all day. He believed, from what I told him, that I and my friends were financially interested through Manahan. He explained his position as representing Mr. Trenholm, Secretary of the Confederate Treasury. He told how he had formerly run cotton through the lines on the Mississippi river.
Now that the tobacco had been seized, his plan was to press a claim upon our government, representing the tobacco to belong to Union people. He told me he had papers at his hotel which would corroborate him.