"

"Then you were on detective work when you went around from house to
house?"

"I am not giving my business away."

"What are you after? I may aid you."

The detective laughed and said:

"When I need aid I will secure a woman."

Here was as pretty a double answer as was ever uttered, but the man from
Newark only got on to one end of it. After a little time Jack let down
easy on the man, thinking he might be of some service some day, and
later the visitor departed, carrying his mortification and defeat in his
memory. But he had learned a lesson, we hope, in the difficult trade he
pretended to follow.

On the day following the incidents we have recorded Jack started out to
walk to the adjoining town. On the way he came to an old graveyard; he
stopped a moment and then said, talking to himself:

"Great Scott! I have missed a point all along. I will just take a walk
around this old burying ground. I have not been able to learn anything
from the living, I may pick up a point from a tombstone."

It was a bright, clear day; the sun shone with magnificent splendor as
the shrewd officer entered the burying ground. He walked around looking
for little graves, and he had been fully an hour in the place when
suddenly he uttered a cry. He beheld letters almost illegible which
struck him as startling in view of his quest. He dropped down, brushed
away the grass, and lo, his search was ended--indeed his eyes had not
deceived him. There before his eyes was the humble epitaph: "Amalie
Canfield, aged four years; died December 20, 18--."

The detective's search was over and he was sadly disappointed, although
the disappointment meant a large fortune to himself, under the
declaration of Mr. Townsend. There was no need for the detective to
search further. He had solved the mystery, he had found Amalie Stevens,
and _she left no heirs_. The child had died, according to the tombstone,
some two months following the death of her adopted grandfather. There
was the indisputable testimony.

On the day following Jack appeared in New York and at the home of Mr.
Townsend, and he said:

"Well, sir, the mystery is all solved."

"It is?"

"Yes."

"You have found Amalie Stevens?"

"I have found the grave of Amalie Canfield, aged four years."

Our hero proceeded and told all that had occurred, and Mr. Townsend
remarked:

"How sad, how fatal!"

"Yes, sir, but you have a consolation. Your oversight has not cost any
one any trouble.