guilty
conscience.

"But my theories were doomed to be laid aside for a time. Other duties
claimed me and it was four weeks before I could turn so much as a
thought toward W----.

"Before leaving the city, however, I had placed my wax cast of the
chloroform bottle in the hands of one of my best men, and had also given
him a clue upon which to work.

"My agent was wonderfully successful. He found the counterparts to the
chloroform bottle, and then he began shadowing the owner of said vials.
It proved to be a young woman who had formerly lived in W----, as a
factory hand, but who had been transplanted to the city by Frank
Lamotte.

"It is not necessary to enlarge upon the story of this girl as connected
with Lamotte; but this must be borne in mind. During the time that my
agent had this girl under surveillance, Frank Lamotte visited her, and,
it is supposed that he removed the remaining bottles of the set, for one
was afterward exhumed, in fragments, from Doctor Heath's ash heap, by
the industrious Jerry Belknap, and the others have disappeared."

At the mention of this factory girl Mrs. Aliston turned her face toward
Constance, its expression saying as plainly as any language could, "I
told you so." But Mr. Bathurst took no notice of this, and hurried on
with his story.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE STORY OF LUCKY JIM.

"From the moment when I appeared among you as Brooks, my work was
double. I was bent upon posting myself thoroughly in regard to Jasper
Lamotte, and day by day I became more interested in the career of this
remarkable man.

"Step by step, I trod backward the path of his history, since his advent
in W----, gathering my information from many sources.

"It would be tedious to enter into details; suffice it to say that while
I worked here, two others, trained to such research, were beating up the
past I was so anxious to become familiar with. And a third, across the
water, was gathering up the history of John Burrill, another object of
interest to me at that time.

"And now I will reverse the order in which we made our search, and,
beginning where my men left off, give you, in brief, the history of a
remarkable man.

"The man we know as Jasper Lamotte figured in various cities,
twenty-five years ago, and still earlier, as _Lucky Jim_, a handsome,
well educated, sharp witted, confidence man.

"He seldom gambled, and made his swindling operations of various sorts
reap him a rich harvest; and,