Stand By The Union | Page 5

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 bell rang an hour later than usual," added Christy.
"We were all disturbed last night, and I did not wake till the cook knocked at my door. She told me she could not find Walsh, and breakfast had been ready half an hour. That is the reason why everything is late this morning," Mrs. Passford explained.
"But where is Walsh?" inquired Christy.
"I am sure I do not know. I called in the coachman, and he has been to his room and looked all over the place without finding him."
"That is very odd," mused the officer, wondering whether this sudden disappearance had anything to do with the principal event of the preceding night.
"Peach says he has taken his valise with him, which indicates that he has gone for good."
"Who is Peach?" asked Christy, who had been at home so little that he hardly knew the names of the servants.
"He is the coachman. I am