Clara sent every available cent to Maud, to help her raise her son, Paul. Clara's income was slight. Leonard helped very little financially with the household. Away on business most of the time, he complained of the Panic of 1893, of lost incomes and jobs. In truth, he was deceiving several Indian tribes while representing them in depredation claims. In fact, he was receiving thousands of dollars and doing little legal work. And his extra money went not to his wife and children - but to Maud.

On a surprise visit to their home in Beatrice, Nebraska, Clara caught Leonard and Maud "in the act." She had believed her husband, that he had eschewed himself from Maud. Now he declared that he would leave Maud if, and only if, Clara gave up her newspaper and her Crusade for Suffrage.

Susan B. Anthony knew the potential cost of Clara's plight on the cause. Divorce would blacken the Cause, just as children distracted her "soldiers" from their fight. Clara turned to Spiritualism, or New Thought religion, and sought answers from séances. Zintka took great and loud offence to one medium, who evoked her familiar, a little dead Indian girl. The troubled girl had begun to explode her confusion in tantrums and violence.

Colby's ultimate deception was linked with the Spanish American War of 1898. Colby began courting Clara again, lulling her back into the trust and love that they first knew in marriage. He suggested that Clara, still a prominent figure in Washington, help him obtain a military commission to command forces in Cuba. With her help, Colby secured a one million dollar commission, and was sent to Georgia and Alabama to prepare his forces. Clara went with him, receiving permission to serve as a war correspondent overseas. With their adopted son Clarence as a bugler, the family seemed whole again.

Before he could fight in Cuba, the War was over. Clara returned Clarence to Beatrice, and returned to Anniston, Alabama, to surprise her husband. In his military tent waited Colby - and Maud Miller. This time there were no promise or apologies. Colby refused to have Clara back, and Maud made brazen, sexual displays of lust to horrify Clara. Clara would always blame Maud for the failure of the marriage.

One more intrigue remains in the story of the Spanish-American War. Colby did go to Cuba, on what he labeled a "confidential mission." He took Maud with him to Matanzas, Cuba. Within the month, Maud was married to one Tomás H. Martinez, a sugar and coffee plantation owner. Soon afterward, Martinez was reported missing. His disappearance remains a mystery.

What is not a mystery is the half-million dollar settlement that Maud eventually received from Martinez's death. Maud filed an additional million-dollar lawsuit against the US government - once again filed by Colby, using his favorite legal scheme - depredation claims for damages to her missing husband's plantations.