But he declared his intention of laying the whole matter before General Drayton immediately on his arrival, and it is best that Armstrong should be prepared. As for the lady, Canker said she and Armstrong were very close friends when they were at Fort Stanhope ten years ago, though they no longer meet as such. "And that brings me to another matter. I declined positively to allow two or three ladies, wives of officers, to go on to Manila with Canker's command; and they said that as I had promised Mrs. Garrison a passage I had no right to refuse them. Pressed for their authority, two very estimable women told me that, at the Presidio two days before we sailed, Mrs. Garrison openly boasted of having my promise to send her on the very next steamer. Now, who is really the fabricator? I told her positively that, with my consent, she should not go; and she laughed delightedly, and said she only asked as a matter of form--the whole thing had already been settled. Just see to it that if any more transports start before my return no woman is permitted aboard except, of course, authorized nurses. Gray is a very sick boy to-night, but you might wire his father, saying nothing of the arrest, that the doctors are confident of his recovery in course of time." Armstrong read these pages twice over before he looked up. "How did this letter come?" he asked. "By the Salvador yesterday." "And the next mail for Honolulu?" queried Armstrong, rising from his chair and handing back the folded letter. "The next mail closed an hour ago, man. The China sails at two. No other boat for a week. Where are you going now?" "To camp for ten minutes, then to the Presidio." "Oh, come over to the club and have a bite first?" said the adjutant-general, rising and wriggling out of his uniform coat as he did so. "I won't keep you half an hour." "That half-hour may prove precious," answered Armstrong, already at the door. "Many thanks all the same." "Well. Hold on. What am I to say to the General as to Gray and those letters?" asked the staff officer, intent upon the subject uppermost in his mind at the moment. "You can't say anything that will reach him before he returns. You have just told me no other boat would start for a week. By that time he'll be coming home." And with that Armstrong let himself out and strode to the elevator, leaving his friend to cogitate on the question over his luncheon. It was decidedly that officer's opinion that Armstrong knew much more than he would tell.