through the hall; but beyond
that, all was indistinct and dream-like.

The words were these:

"Glad to see you back, sir. This murder following so close upon your
visit must have been a great surprise. A sad occurrence, that, sir, and
a very mysterious one. Hope you have some information to give."

"If it is a remembrance and such words were uttered outside of my door
last night," argued the young detective to himself, "the guest who
called them forth can be no other than the tall and florid gentleman
whom I encountered in the bar-room. But is it a remembrance, or only a
chimera of my own overwrought brain struggling with a subject it will
not let drop? As Shakespeare says, 'That is the question!'"

Fortunately, it was not one which it behooved him to decide. So, for the
twentieth time, he put the subject by and resolved to think of it no
more.

But perplexities of this kind are not so easily dismissed, and more than
once during his hurried and solitary breakfast, did he ask himself
whether, in case the words were real, he had not found in the landlord
of this very hotel the one witness for which the coroner was so
diligently seeking.

A surprise awaited him after breakfast, in the sudden appearance at his
room door of the very gentleman last alluded to.

"Ha, Byrd," said he, with cheerful vivacity: "here is a line from the
superintendent which may prove interesting to you."

And with a complacent smile, Dr. Tredwell handed over a letter which had
been brought to him by the detective who had that morning arrived from
New York.

With a dim sense of foreboding which he would have found difficult to
explain, Mr. Byrd opened the note and read the following words:

DEAR SIR,--I send with this a man fully competent
to conduct a case of any ordinary difficulty. I
acknowledge it is for our interest that you employ
him to the exclusion of the person mentioned in
your letter. But if you or that person think that
he can render you any real assistance by his
interference, he is at liberty to act in his
capacity of detective in as far as he can do so
without divulging too widely the secret of his
connection with the force. ---- ----.

"The superintendent need not be concerned," said Mr. Byrd, returning the
note with a constrained bow. "I shall not interfere in this matter."

"You will miss a good thing, then," remarke