"That is very easily accounted for. I happened to be at the house when you were struck down. I was in the lower room, and heard the row. With others I went up to see what the matter was. I had a carriage in the street, and when I recognized you, the captain of the coaster, at my request, took you up in his arms like a baby, carried you down into the street, and put you into the vehicle, and you were brought here. I presume this will fill up the entire gap in your recollection." "It is all as clear as mud now," laughed Somers. "Mr. Pillgrim, I am very grateful to you for the kind offices you rendered me." "Don't mention it, my dear fellow. I should have been worse than a brute if I had done any less than I did." "That may be; but my gratitude is none the less earnest on that account. Those are villainous people in that house, and I might have been butchered and cut up, if I had been left there." "I think not. The captain of the coaster is evidently an honest man; at any rate he is very sorry for what he did. But, Somers, my dear fellow,--you will pardon me if I seem impertinent,--how did you happen to be in such a place?" continued Mr. Pillgrim, with a certain affectation of slyness in his look, as though he had caught the exemplary young man in a house where he would not have been willing to be seen. "How did _you_ happen to be there?" demanded Somers. "I don't profess to be a very proper person. I take my whiskey when I want it." "So do I; and the only difference between us is, that I never happen to want it." "I did not go into that house for my whiskey, though. It is rather strange that we should both happen into such a place at the same time." "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." "Neither do I."