"Well, there is trouble," said the senator, losing patience at last. "When
I told Grant you were here and mentioned that little Brampton matter to
him,--it didn't seem much to me,--the bees began to fly pretty thick, I
can tell you. I saw right away that somebody had been stirring 'em up. It
looks to me, Jethro," said the senator gravely, "it looks to me as if you
had something of a rebellion on your hands."

"W-what'd Grant say?" Jethro inquired.

"Well, he didn't say a great deal--he isn't much of a talker, you know,
but what he did say was to the point. It seems that your man, Prescott,
doesn't come from Brampton, in the first place, and Grant says that while
he likes soldiers, he hasn't any use for the kind that want to lie down
and make the government support 'em. I'll tell you what I found out.
Worthington and Duncan wired the President this morning, and they've gone
up to the White House now. They've got a lot of railroad interests back
of them, and they've taken your friend Sutton into camp; but I managed to
get the President to promise not to do anything until he saw you tomorrow
afternoon at two."

Jethro sat silent so long that the senator began to think he wasn't going
to answer him at all. In his opinion, he had told Jethro some very grave
facts.

"W-when are you going to see the President again?" said Jethro, at last.

"To-morrow morning," answered the senator; "he wants me to walk over with
him to see the postmaster-general, who is sick in bed."

"What time do you leave the White House?--"