But even at that moment Clarence Brant's heart had gone out, with all his old loyalty of feeling, towards his old companion.

He knew that a public recognition of him then and there would plunge Hooker into confusion; he felt keenly the ironical plaudits and laughter of his officers over the manifest weakness and vanity of the ex-teamster, ex-rancher, ex-actor, and husband of his old girl sweetheart, and would have spared him the knowledge that he had overheard it.

Turning hastily to the orderly, he bade him bring the stranger to his headquarters, and rode away unperceived.
He had heard enough, however, to account for his presence there, and the singular chance that had brought them again together.

He was evidently one of those large civil contractors of supplies whom the Government was obliged to employ, who visited the camp half officially, and whom the army alternately depended upon and abused.

Brant had dealt with his underlings in the Commissariat, and even now remembered that he had heard he was coming, but had overlooked the significance of his name.
But how he came to leave his theatrical profession, how he had attained a position which implied a command of considerable capital--for many of the contractors had already amassed large fortunes--and what had become of Susy and her ambitions in this radical change of circumstances, were things still to be learned.