Dalton there,
bitterly weeping, and the keeper showing her the body said to be her
father's.

The man's head was gone, as if it had been severed by the wheels of a
passing boat. The hands were nearly destroyed and the clothing was in a
good state. The keeper was asking the girl:

"An' yer recognize him as yer father?"

"It must be," replied Lizzie, with a sob. "On the finger is a ring
which I know belonged to him, the clothing certainly is his and the
keys, papers and penknife found in the pockets belonged to him. As you
can see, the envelopes have his name and address on them."

Just then the girl saw the Bradys.

They bowed to her and Old King Brady said, in kindly tones:

"We hope you will make no error, Miss Dalton. Let the identification be
complete. Everything depends upon your verdict."

"Oh, I am positive it is poor papa," said the weeping girl, "for no one
but he could have had the things found on this corpse."

The detectives examined the body and the effects.

They then left the Morgue with the girl.

She was deeply affected and they brought her home in a carriage.

When they left her at her door and departed, the Bradys were in a
bewildered state of mind and the old detective said:

"Harry, I'm completely puzzled again."

"On account of the girl's positive identification of that body?"

"Yes. If it wasn't Dalton's corpse she would not declare it was."

"But how about the body we traced to the swamp in Georgia? Could it
have been brought North again and thrown in the river here?"

"Such a thing might have occurred."

"It seems improbable, though."

"Very true. But there's no way to account for the finding of this body
here unless that's what happened."

"Then we are beyond our depth again."

"So it appears. We may be deep enough to solve an ordinary mystery, but
the depth of this one seems to be too much for us. At first we imagined
we had the whole thing thoroughly sifted out. Now we've received a
severe setback. It brings us to where we started, practically. All our
theories may have been wrong. Sim Johnson and Ronald Mason may be
innocent men. Perhaps we wronged them by unjust suspicions based upon
circumstantial evidence."

"Then you think we had better drop the case?"

Old King Brady nodded, and replied:

"I don't see what else we can do now. If the man found in the river is
Dalton, the body is in such a state that it will be utterly impossible
to tell whether he was a victim