"Thank you, Colonel. You had me scared."
He had just turned to leave the room when a messenger handed Sumner a telegram.
Stuart paused to hear the message.
"Bad news, Lieutenant."
"What, sir?"
"An attack has been made on the Southern settlement on the
Pottawattomie."
"A drunken fight—"
"No. Wilkinson, the member of the Legislature from Miami County, was taken from his house in the night and murdered."
"The story's a fake," Stuart ventured.
"The man who sent this message doesn't make such mistakes."