que for 9,175 dollars,
and to Mr. Holmes ten dollars for his expenses. Smith, the carpenter,
had been present at the proceedings at the Potter's Field. For a moment
he thought he detected a likeness in Mr. Holmes to the man who had
visited Perry at Callowhill Street on August 22 and gone upstairs with
him, but he did not feel sure enough of the fact to make any mention of
it.

In the prison at St. Louis there languished in the year 1894 one Marion
Hedgspeth, serving a sentence of twenty years' imprisonment for
an audacious train robbery. On the night of November 30, 1891, the
'Friscow express from St. Louis had been boarded by four ruffians, the
express car blown open with dynamite, and 10,000 dollars carried off.
Hedgspeth and another man were tried for the robbery, and sentenced to
twenty years' imprisonment. On October 9, 1894, Hegspeth{sic} made a
statement to the Governor of the St. Louis prison, which he said he
wished to be communicated to the Fidelity Mutual Life Association. In
the previous July Hedgspeth said that he had met in the prison a man
of the name of H. M. Howard, who was charged with fraud, but had
been released on bail later in the month. While in prison Howard told
Hedgspeth that he had devised a scheme for swindling an insurance
company of 10,000 dollars, and promised Hedgspeth that, if he would
recommend him a lawyer suitable for such an enterprise, he should have
500 dollars as his share of the proceeds. Hedgspeth recommended Jephtha
D. Howe. The latter entered with enthusiasm into the scheme, and told
Hedgspeth that he thought Mr. Howard "one of the smoothest and slickest"
men he had ever known. A corpse was to be found answering to Pitezel's
description, and to be so treated as to appear to have been the victim
of an accidental explosion, while Pitezel himself would disappear to
Germany. From Howe Hedgspeth learnt that the swindle had been carried
out successfully, but he had never received from Howard the 500 dollars
promised him. Consequently, he had but little compunction in divulging
the plot to the authorities.

It was realised at once that H. M. Howard and H. H. Holmes were the same
person, and that Jephtha D. Howe and Mr. Holmes were not the
strangers to each other that they had affected to be when they met
in Philadelphia. Though somewhat doubtful of the truth of Hedgspeth's
statement, the insurance company decided to set Pinkerton's detectives
on the track of Mr. H. H. Holmes. After