and make terms with _me_; to fairly compel me to keep him
in my service! and to bring such a charge against _him_. If he had an
enemy, I should call it a wretched plot. But I'll not be outwitted by
you, Mr. Belknap; I have three day's grace."

She continued to pace the room with much energy for a few moments, and
then seating herself at a writing table, rapidly wrote as follows:

NEIL BATHURST, ESQ,
No.---- B---- street. N. Y.

_Dear Sir:_--If in your power, be in W---- in two days, without
fail. Danger menaces your friend, Dr. H----, and I only hold
detective B---- in my service to bridle his tongue. I fear a plot,
and can only stay proceedings against the innocent, by proclaiming
the truth concerning my diamonds; acting under your advice, I will
withhold my statement until you arrive.

Hastily, etc.,
CONSTANCE WARDOUR.

There was yet an hour before the departure of the eastern mail, and
Constance sealed her letter, and dispatched it by a faithful messenger;
this done, she pondered again.

The private detective had waited upon her that morning with a strange
statement. For weeks he had been working out this strange case, guided
by the fact that the chloroform administered to Constance was
scientifically meted out. He had commenced a system of shadowing the
various medical men in W----, without regard to their present or
previous standing. Nothing could be found in the past or present of any
to cause them to fall under suspicion, until he came to investigate
Doctor Heath. Here what did he find? First, that his antecedents could
be traced back only so far as his stay in W---- had extended. Nothing
could be found to prove that his career had been above reproach,
previous to his sojourn here; hence, according to the reasoning of Mr.
Belknap, it was fair to suppose that it had not been. "For," argued the
astute private detective, "where there is secresy, there is also room
for suspicion." And Constance felt a momentary sinking of the heart,
when she recalled the words she had overheard, as they fell from the
lips of Clifford Heath: "Here, I am Clifford Heath, from nowhere."
Starting with a suspicion, the private detective had made rapid headway.
He had ascertained beyond a doubt that Doctor Heath's expenses, taken
all in all, were in excess of his professional income. He might have a
private income, true; but this was not proven, and then there _was_ a
mystery that