I don't suppose you told the girl to let me see her face, eh?" Mr.
Barnes made no reply, though to himself he said, "Just as I told the
fool." Mr. Mitchel went on: "At last one day, just as I was getting on a
train, a smart-looking young woman came out of the waiting-room and
followed me aboard. Purely from habit I walked through the train to the
first coach. I ride in that because it is the coolest in summer and the
least draughty in winter. Now there were several cross seats empty in
the coaches through which I passed, and as the young woman behind me did
not take one, but followed me through the train, I became suspicious.
When she sat down opposite to me, of course I studied her face. I hardly
ever forget a face after I have made a mental note of it. The rest was
simple. She was sharp enough not to get off the train when I did, and I
dismissed her from my mind. Thus I suppose she was enabled to follow me
to the Irving Place house. But of course I recognized her at once when I
saw her at Miss Remsen's."

"Did I understand you to say that this Rose Mitchel is your daughter?"

"I don't know what you understood, but I did not say so. I spoke of her
just as you did, 'Rose Mitchel, who passed as my daughter.'"

"Well, then, is she your daughter?"

"I decline to answer."

"Why do you do so?"

"I must decline to reply to that also."

"Do you not see, Mr. Mitchel, you are simply making your actions more
and more suspicious?"

"My dear Mr. Barnes, I do not care a straw how much suspicion I arouse,
so long as I am not confronted by any proof. Whenever you think you have
any proof against me, come to me and I will endeavor to refute it."

"Very well. You have asked me to discover who stole Miss Remsen's ruby.
I have already done so."

"Mr. Barnes, you are a genius. Who is it?"

"Yourself."

"Bosh! Can't you do better than that? Why, I have been sick abed here
for over three days."

"Mr. Mitchel, you are caught this time. You were not sick abed here at
the time of the robbery. On the contrary you went over to New York,
attended the festival, and took the ruby pin from Miss Remsen's hair."

"Mr. Barnes, you are laboring under a delusion. I tell you I have been
in this room since December 30th."

"One of my men followed you to this place. On the night of the 1st, he
registered at this hotel, being assigned to the room next to this. He
picked the lock of the communicating door, and came in here, thus
discovering