t of the books of the hotel, and found that the
three Canning children had arrived there on October 1 and stayed until
the 10th. From the former proprietor of the hotel he learnt that Holmes
had described himself as the children's uncle, and had said that Howard
was a bad boy, whom he was trying to place in some institution. The
children seldom went out; they would sit in their room drawing or
writing, often they were found crying; they seemed homesick and unhappy.

There are letters of the children written from Indianapolis to their
mothers, letters found in Holmes' possession, which had never reached
her. In these letters they ask their mother why she does not write to
them. She had written, but her letters were in Holmes' possession. Alice
writes that she is reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin." She has read so much
that her eyes hurt; they have bought a crystal pen for five cents which
gives them some amusement; they had been to the Zoo in Cincinnati the
Sunday before: "I expect this Sunday will pass away slower than I don't
know--Howard is two (sic) dirty to be seen out on the street to-day."
Sometimes they go and watch a man who paints "genuine oil paintings"
in a shoe store, which are given away with every dollar purchase of
shoes--"he can paint a picture in one and a half minutes, ain't that
quick!" Howard was getting a little troublesome. "I don't like to tell
you," writes Alice, "but you ask me, so I will have to. Howard won't
mind me at all. He wanted a book and I got 'Life of General Sheridan,'
and it is awful nice, but now he don't read it at all hardly." Poor
Howard! One morning, says Alice, Mr. Holmes told him to stay in and wait
for him, as he was coming to take him out, but Howard was disobedient,
and when Mr. Holmes arrived he had gone out. Better for Howard had he
never returned! "We have written two or three letters to you," Alice
tells her mother, "and I guess you will begin to get them now." She
will not get them. Mr. Holmes is so very particular that the insurance
company shall get no clue to the whereabouts of any member of the
Pitezel family.

Geyer knew that from Indianapolis Holmes had gone to Detroit. He
ascertained that two girls, "Etta and Nellie Canning," had registered
on October 12 at the New Western Hotel in that city, and from there had
moved on the 15th to a boarding-house in Congress Street. From Detroit
Alice had written to her grandparents. It was cold and wet, she wrote;
she and Etta had