Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-02-11

rival of survivors from Monterey, and
then inquiries began to be made for
Lieutenant Loring and new stories to
appear in papers that had not already
committed themselves to other versions
of the affair, and then it transpired that
something had gone amiss at depart
ment headquarters.
Lieutenant Loring, after an interview
with the commanding general, had has
tened to Monterey in search of the cap
tain and purser. The former he found
there PROSTATE and actually Eighty, so
much so that he could give no coherent
answer to questions propounded to him.
In the marine hospital, suffering from
a gunshot wound, was the huge sailor
who had feIled the commander to the
deoh in the rush for the remaining boats,
rush in which he was ringleader, and
a piteous tale he tOld-that he had been
shot by passenger whom he was trying
to prevent from getting into the boat
they were holding for the women.
The gallant little second officer had
gone to his wife and children in the
southern part of the state, and was not
there to tell the truth. The captain was
almost delirious. The first officer in
San Francisco had been tacitly posing
as marine lion and could not be we'll
expected to volunteer information that
might rob him of his laurels. The sur
vivors among the passengers were scat
tered by this time, and the purser,
whose testimony might be of great
value, had disappeared.
'Must be in Frisco,'' said the agent
who had been sent down to see that
every man was furnished with clothing
and money at the company's expense,
and sent on his way measurably COM
forted. "Traynor had desperate squeak
for life, said the agent. "He was in
the captains boat when she sank and
was weighed down with his money
packages, belted about him underneath
his coat, and was hauled ashore more
dead than alive, and some of his valu-
ables were lost-he couldn't tell how
much -
And this was the man Mr.. Loring
most needed to see. There had come to
department headquarters a person rep
resenting himself as the San Francisco
ing a written order for valuable pack
age which had been given the purser
for safe keeping-had been locked by
him in his safe-and which now could
be found nowhere. Mr.. Traynor had de-
clared to the owners that after getting
the women aboard the boat he had taken
all the money from the safe and such
packages as it was possible to carry and
tossed three Or four to Loring as he
stood balancing himself on a thwart
and clinging to the fall, and that he
was sure one of them was that of the
Senorita Panoha, for she was at the
moment clasping Loring's knees and
imploring him to sit down.
The boat was alternately lifting high
and sinking deep as the great waves
rolled by, and Traynor, while admit
ting haste and excitement, declared that
he could almost swear that Loring re-
ceived three packages and one of them
must have been that now demanded by
the Escalantes' agent. Hence the visit
of that somber person to headquarters
and his importunate appeals to Loring,
who told him the whole story was alb
surd.
But then, this agent had appealed to
the general, and that officer, whose
manner the day of Lorings return to
duty had been marked by odd con-
straint. sent for the engineer and re-
quired of him a statement as to the
truth or falsity Of these allegations, and
when Loring, startled and indignant,
answered, "False, of course, sir, D." and
demanded what further accusation there
was the chief tossed aside the paper
folder he was nervously lingering,
sprang up and began to pace the floor,
favorite method, said those who long
had known him, of working off steam
when he was much excited.
81 can't discuss this painful matter,
Mr.. Loring," said he testify. you'll
have to see Colonel Strain, the adjutant
general. This deplorable loss of Colonel
Turnbull has upset everybody"
So Loring went to Colonel Strain, a
man to whom he was but slightly
known, and then it was developed that
-