"I think not, sir; but you will see Webb within a few days and he will
tell you all about it. What I know is this, that Field was ordered to go
and that he gave the major an order on Hay for two packages containing
the money for which he was accountable. Field and Wilkins had had a
falling out, and, instead of putting the cash in the quartermaster's
safe, Field kept it at Hay's. At guard mounting Hay brought the package
to the major, who opened both in presence of the officers of the day.
Each package was supposed to contain three or four hundred dollars.
Neither contained twenty. Some paper slips inserted between five dollar
bills made up the packages. Field was then far to the north and past
conferring with. Hay was amazed and distressed--said that someone must
have duplicate keys of his safe as well as of his stables."
"Why the stables?" asked the chief, pausing at the gate and studying the
troubled face of the honored soldier he so well knew and so fully
trusted. He was thinking, too, how this was not the first occasion that
the loss of public money had been hidden for the time in just that
way--slips inserted between good currency.
"Because it transpires that some of his horses were out that very night
without his consent or ken.
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