plan I had formed to discover the author of this
fraud, I extracted the bank-notes from the letter I had written, and put
in their place stiff pieces of manilla paper. Taking the envelope so
filled to the hotel already alluded to, I placed it at the opening
chapters of Isaiah in the Bible as described. There was no one in either
of the rooms when I went in, and I encountered only a bell-boy as I came
out; but at the door I ran against a young man whom I strictly forbore
to recognize, but whom I knew to be my improvised detective coming to
take his stand in some place where he could watch the parlor, and note
who went into it.

"At noon I returned to the hotel, passed immediately to the small
parlor, and looked into the Bible. The letter was gone. Coming out of
the room, I was at once joined by my detective.

"'Has the letter been taken?' he eagerly inquired.

"I nodded.

"His brows wrinkled and he looked both troubled and perplexed.

"'I don't understand it,' he remarked, 'I've seen every one who has gone
into that room since you left it, but I do not know now any more than
before who took the letter. You see,' he continued, as I looked at him
sharply, 'I had to remain out here. If I had gone even into the large
room the Bible would not have been disturbed nor the letter either, so
in the hope of knowing the rogue at sight, I strolled about this hall
and kept my eye constantly on that door, but----'

"He looked embarrassed and stopped.

"'You say the letter is gone?' he suggested, after a moment.

"'Yes,' I returned.

"He shook his head. 'Nobody went into that room or came out of it,' he
went on, 'whom you would have wished me to follow. I should have thought
myself losing time if I had taken one step after any one of them.'

"'But who did go into that room?' I urged, impatient at his perplexity.

"'Only three persons this morning,' he returned. 'You know them all.'
And he mentioned first Mrs. Couldock."

Taylor, who was lending me the superficial attention of a pre-occupied
man, smiled frankly at the utterance of this name. "Of course she had
nothing to do with such a debasing piece of business," he observed.

"Of course not," I repeated. "Nor does it seem likely that Miss Dawes
could have been concerned in it either. Yet my detective told me that
she was the next person who went into the parlor."

"I do not know Miss Dawes so well," remarked Taylor carelessly.

"But I do," said I, "and I would as soon