Nothing that Billings could say had any effect upon this determination, and when, a few hours later, a train, guarded by a full company of the 50th, was made up for New York, Myles was among its passengers. A number of his new-found soldier friends crowded about him, full of regret at his departure, and urging him to remain with them at least for that night. To them Myles only answered that he was under orders as well as they, and must obey them.
The train was ready to start. The conductor was shouting “All aboard!” and Billings was bidding his friend good-bye, when Myles suddenly exclaimed:
“Oh, Billings, I owe the telegraph operator here fifty dollars. He loaned it to me yesterday, and since then I haven’t had a chance to see him. Will you find and thank him for me, and tell him I will write, and return the money as soon as I reach New York?”
“All right!” shouted Billings, as he stepped from the moving train. “That and all other commissions executed by yours truly, at moderate charge.”
The captain commanding the escort that accompanied the train came and sat down beside the young reporter. He was a quiet but determined-looking fellow, as sun-browned and broad-shouldered as Myles himself. His intelligent conversation served to banish the anxious thoughts that on account of his unexpected recall were beginning to oppress the latter. Myles could not help contrasting his manner with the boastful swagger of Lieutenant Easter and the neat gray uniform worn by his present companion with the gorgeous plumage of the other. He interested the captain, whose name was Ellis, by describing the capture of the train on which he had ridden the day before, and the comical plight to which its escort had been reduced. When he told Captain Ellis that the assistant division superintendent had also been made a prisoner and carried off by the strikers the other said:
“He must have escaped then, for I heard of him in his uncle’s office just before we started. The colonel was talking to the superintendent, and, as I went in for final instructions, I heard the latter say that his assistant had only just returned from a trip over the western division and that——”
“The superintendent!” exclaimed Myles. “The division superintendent? Is he at Mountain Junction?”
“Yes, he came in on a special a few minutes before we left and reported that no new damage had been done to the track.”
This was startling information to Myles, for it recalled the fact, which he had utterly forgotten, that he still had the key of the safe.