“Why,” he exclaimed, “the note is gone! I am positive I left it here.”
He turned to the colonel’s “striker,” who lounged sleepily in the adjoining room, to inquire if any one had been there in his absence.
“Not a soul, sir,” was the answer.
“Then, have you yourself been in here, or touched any of the papers on the desk?”
“Haven’t stirred from my seat, sir, since you and the colonel went.”
That seemed to settle pretty well the question of outside interference, for, with the guard outside and this man seated where he could command the whole interior of the place, no person could have entered undetected. Yet the note was indubitably gone. The drawers of the desk were ransacked, the files gone over, even the floor thoroughly searched, without revealing the slightest trace of it. With all the doors and windows closed, there was no chance of it having been carried away by some frolicsome breeze.
Major Appleby regarded Grail with a portentous frown. “Captain,” he said stiffly, “this is very, very strange.”
CHAPTER III.
UNDER SUSPICION.
There was little sleep at Fort Denton that night. Two o’clock found the lights still burning brightly in Major Appleby’s quarters, where most of the officers of the post were assembled. Conspicuous by his absence from this gathering, however, was the adjutant, Captain Grail. He had been there at an earlier hour to join in the deliberations, but after once more making a report of the circumstances connected with Colonel Vedant’s disappearance, he somewhat stiffly withdrew. He sensed in the conference that same feeling of doubt and hostility toward him which had manifested itself in Appleby and his companions on first hearing the story, and his self-respect would not permit him to remain.
After his departure, a rather uneasy silence settled down on the council. A few pointless remarks were made, but for the most part the group devoted themselves to their cigars, and studied the pattern of the carpet.