“You kept that all this time, dear?” he inquired, gently taking the paper and looking at it.

“Yes.  Why not?  It was the last relic I possessed of you.  And it has never left me.  I never showed it to a human being, because you did not wish me to do so.  But you said you had written two letters.  To whom was the other?  We never heard of it.”

Rothsay looked at her in surprise for a moment and answered: 

“The other letter?  Why, of course it was my letter of resignation.”

“Then it was never found!  Never!  If it had been, it would have saved much trouble.  No one knew what had become of you, Rule.  Not even I, except that you had left me on account of that last conversation between us, which you adjured me never to divulge.  And oh! what amazement your disappearance caused! and what conjectures as to your fate!  Many thought that you had been assassinated and your body sunk in the river.  Oh, Rule!  Many others thought that you had been abducted by some political enemy—­as if any force could have carried you off, Rule!”

Rothsay laughed for the first time during the interview.  Corona continued: 

“Advertisements were placed in all the papers, offering large rewards for information that should lead to the discovery of your fate or whereabouts, living or dead.  And, oh! how many impostors came forward to claim the money, with information that led to nothing at all.  A sailor returning from Rio de Janeiro swore that you had shipped as a man before the mast and gone out with him, and that he had left you in the capital of Brazil.  A fur trader from Alaska reported you killing seals in that territory.  A returned miner swore that he had left you gold digging in California.  A New Bedford sailor made his affidavit that he had seen you embark on a whaling ship for Baffin’s Bay.  These were the most hopeful reports.  But there were others.  There was never the body of an unknown man found anywhere that was not reported to be yours.  Oh, Rule! think of the anguish all these rumors cost your friends!”

“Cost you, my poor Corona!  I doubt if they cost any other human being a single pang.”

“But all these rumors proved to be false, and your fate remained a mystery until it was apparently cleared up by the report of your murder by the Comanches in the massacre of La Terrepeur.”

“A report as false as any of the others, as you see, yet with a better foundation in probability than any of those, as I have explained.  But how my letter of resignation should have been lost I cannot conjecture.  I posted it with my own hand,” said Rothsay, reflectively.

“Why, letters are occasionally lost in the mail!  But, Rule, how was it that you never heard of all the amazement and confusion that followed your flight, for the want of your letter to explain it?”

“Because, dear, from the time I left the State capital to this day I have never seen a newspaper or spoken to a civilized being.”