"Rather strange."
"But I will tell you why I was there," added Pillgrim. "I received a letter from a wounded sailor, asking me to call upon him, and assist him in obtaining a pension."
"Did you, indeed!" exclaimed Somers, amazed at this explanation. "You have also told how I happened to be there."
"How was that?"
"I received just such a letter as that you describe," replied Somers, taking the dirty epistle from his pocket, which he opened and exhibited to his brother officer.
"The handwriting is the same, and the substance of both letters is essentially the same. That's odd—isn't it?" continued the lieutenant, as he drew the epistle he had received from his pocket. "I got mine when I came in, about ten o'clock; and thinking I might go to New York in the morning for a couple of days, I thought I would attend to the matter at once."
Somers took the letters, and compared them. They were written by the same person, on the same kind of paper, and were both mailed on the same day.
"This looks rather suspicious to me," added Pillgrim, reflecting on the circumstances.
"Why suspicious?"
"Why should both of us have been called? Tom Barron claims to have served with me, as he did with you. I don't remember any such person."