Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-11-20
'(l|,GGy; 10!
lC,opyhehted. 1sce. BY the J. B. Lippineou Col
CHAPTER XIx.--CoNr1N1,rn !

= Copyrighted. 1898. BY the J. B. Lippincou Col
CHAPTER XIX CONTINUED.
Despite Drayton's cable from Ma
Mia that the Identification of the re-
mains was not conclusive to him, at
least, Mrs. Foster was convinced that
the murdered lad was her only boy,
and all because of that heartless
filrt, that designing-that demoniac
army girl who had bewitched him
and then brought his blood upon her
own head. >,ys 4
81 IT it wasn't Walter who lies there
slain by assassin rival, the innocent
victim of that creatures hideous van
lty, would not have heard from
him? Do you suppose my blessed
boy would not instantly have cabled
to tell me he was alive if he wasn't
deadT And, indeed, that was a hard
question to answer.
And to the remains of Private VIII.
lard Benton, that had been viewed by
many genuinely Borrowing comrade
and slowed away with solemn mill
tary honors in vault at Pace ceme-
terry, were sealed up as best they
could do it at Manila, and, though un-
convinced as to their identity despite
the convictions of others in author
ity, the commanding general yielded
to cables from the war department.
and ordered their shipment to San
Francisco. They were out of sight
of all signals from Corregidor when
Martinda1e's cable came suggesting
search for Private Benton Willard.
Zenobia Perkins shifted contemptu-
ously and scoffed Indignantly when
told that the doubling Thomases
were gaining ground and numbers,
that though Mr.. Stuyvesant might be
brought to trial for killing a man, il
would not be for killing Foster until
more was ascertained regarding the
actual victim. Private Connolly, re-
covered from his fever, was forever
hunting up Farnham, the brakeman,
and devising schemes for the capture
of that blackguard Murray. Day and
night, he maintained that Murray
was the man who had accosted Clarke
and Hunter at the battery, that it
was probably he who, with his pals,
had waylaid and robbed the lone re-
cruit returning from his quest in
East Paco, that it was he who must
have struggled with him before firing
the fatal shot; but not trace of
Murray or his sailor mates could the
secret service agents find, and mat
tiers were in this most unsatisfactory
state when at the end of November
came the Queen of the Fleet, dis
patched several weeks before to fetc},
the troops ''sidetracked'' at Honolulu,
just as the commanding general and
his chief surgeon were in consulta-
ton as to what on earth to do with
Zenobia Perkins-the woman had be-
come a public nuisance.
You compel me to remain against
my will because I'm an Indispensable
witness,' said she to the saturnine
adjutant general, beyond whom she
never now succeeded in passing. She
was volubly berating him, to his
grim amusement, when the lattice
doors from the corridor swung open
and two officers entered.
For nearly two minutes they stood
waiting for break in her tempest:,-
GUS flow of words, but as none came,
the senior impatiently stepped for
ward and the adjutant general, look
ing up, sprang from his chair just as
the chief himself came hurrying out
from the sanctum sanctorum and
greeted the newcomers with cordial
ly clasping hands. The lady too had
risen.
swell, shall have to interrupt you.
gentlemen" said she, ''for my bust
ness won't keep if you propose to
keep me. I want to know right here
and now, Gen. Drayton, whether I'm
to get my pay or not; if not, 7 don't
propose to wait another day in Ma
Mia, and you can get out, of the
scrape the best way you know how.
No one here but me could swear that
young man Foster was dead, and you
know it,
"You've sworn to what isn't so,
madame" interposed the new arrival,
placidly. "Here's that young man
Foster!" and as he spoke the lattice
doors again swung open, and, very
pale, tall youth in civilian dress
was ushered in, at sight of whom.
Maj. Farquhar fairly shouted.
~ How'd get him." said the new
conner five minutes later. "Found
him aboard the Coptic- when she met
us as we were pulling out from
Honolulu. He was going back to the
states. Left Hong-Kong before the
story was published. Didn't want to
come, of course, but had to-"
Wasn't there time to write his
mother? They surely would have
cabled, and the Coptic must have got
into San Francisco week ago."
Certainly. Letter was sent right
on by the steamer, addressed to Gin
cinnati.' -
80 Lord!" said Drayton. ''And she
was at Frisco all the time. Colonel
he added to his chief-of-staff, whats
the first transport home?"
t'Zealandia, sir; tomorrow
'ssorry for the Zealandia, but
Zenobia must go with her. A.
CHAPTER Xxx. ! =+ 81
Walter Fosters mother learned by
cable that the remains she awaited,
I and that reached port almost the day
she got the dispatch, were not those
of her only son, but Of one who had
nractical1v died for him. And even in