"I arrived on the 'Fuerst Bismarck' to-day, and was going to take to-night's train West.

But some fellows of my college 'frat' had fixed up a 'surprise banquet' for me at the Hoffman.
"So, after all they had to tell me to hold me over, I was just opening my accumulated mail, when by accident I picked up an extra.
I thought poor Clayton was away on a summer vacation." "He's away on a devilish long one!" snarled Ferris.

"Took French leave with a quarter of a million.

Who, in God's name, would have taken him for a thief!" The mournful ring of Ferris' voice almost deceived his secret adversary; but Ferris was, in secret, pondering over the Detroit dispatch to the absent Clayton, which he had opened and secreted.
"This man knows nothing," decided the wary Ferris, for Witherspoon's face was frankness itself.
Jack looked around at two men vigorously working away at a huge safe standing in the corner.

"They're now opening Clayton's safe," bitterly said Ferris.