Stand By The Union | Page 5

had not been taken. The burglar
could not have helped seeing it if he had explored the house as such
gentry do on such occasions. In the dining-room no attempt to open the

steel safe set in the wall, which contained a vast amount of silver,
jewelry, money, and other valuables, had been made. In a word,
wherever they examined the rooms, no sign of any depredations could
be discovered. The burglar did not appear to have lunched in the pantry
where some choice viands had been placed. The robber had certainly
been very considerate, and had done no mischief either for plunder or
diversion. He had evidently, in the opinion of Mrs. Passford and her
son, undertaken a profitless enterprise.
"But what could have been his object in coming into the house?" asked
the bewildered lady.
"I shall have to give it up, mother."
"He might have taken Florry's watch, she was so careless as to leave on
the table in the sitting-room," added she.
"But he did not."
"He could not have been disturbed until you spoke to him; and he
might have ransacked the whole of the lower part of the house."
"But he did not."
They had given up the examination of the premises, and given up the
conundrum, and Christy was leading the way up-stairs. He went into
his room, followed by his mother.
"He must have come into your room, my son, or you would not have
heard him at the door. Perhaps he has robbed you," suggested Mrs.
Passford.
The young officer declared he had nothing there to steal. As he spoke,
he took from his coat pocket on the bedpost an envelope containing his
commission and other papers. It was safe; so were his purse and watch.
The mystery was not solved till Christy embarked for the Gulf.

CHAPTER II
THE ABSCONDING MAN-SERVANT
Lieutenant Christopher Passford, in his two years' experience in the
navy, had been under the fire of the enemy too many times to be
intimidated by a burglar, and he felt a certain contempt for the midnight
marauder, who had entered the mansion and disturbed his restful
slumbers. He returned to his bed, therefore, and slept like a marine till
the call bell woke him in the morning.
As he dressed himself he could not help thinking of the mysterious
visitation, and he asked himself a great many questions in regard to the
object of the intruder, since it did not appear that he had entered the
house for the purpose of robbing its occupants. He could not determine
whether or not the fellow had actually come into his room; but his
porte-monnaie, which contained a considerable sum of money, and his
gold repeater, a very valuable watch, were just where he had left them
the night before.
In the breast pocket of his uniform coat he found the envelope which
contained his commission as a lieutenant, received only two days
before his orders, and some other papers. As a precaution against
inquisitive persons, if the package should happen to be mislaid in the
house, he had applied some mucilage in the library, and resealed the
envelope. It had not been tampered with so far as he could discover,
and he returned it to the pocket.
The mysterious visitor at the mansion, whoever or whatever he was,
could not be regarded as a burglar, or, if he was, he had strangely
neglected his opportunities, for he had failed to appropriate at least five
hundred dollars worth of watches and money, which he could hardly
have helped seeing. His object was not plunder, and there was nothing
to indicate the purpose of his visit. In retiring from the house the
intruder had left the front door ajar: and Christy thought it would have
been the most natural thing in the world to close it, in order to conceal
the way by which he had left the mansion. But he might have done this

to avoid the noise of shutting it, or had neglected it in his haste to
escape.
When he had completed his toilet Christy looked at his watch, and was
rather surprised to find that it was a full hour later than usual when the
call bell had been rung. He went down-stairs, and found his mother and
Florry very busy in the dining-room, setting the table. This was the
man's work, and the young officer was astonished to see his mother and
sister doing it.
"What has broken now, mother?" asked the lieutenant, glancing from
one to the other of the busy couple.
"I don't know that anything has broken," replied Mrs. Passford, with a
smile, after she had said good-morning to her son.
"You and Florry are not in the habit of setting the table, mother; and the
first