of
the Money Discovered._--_The Detective makes Advances to the Counsel
of the Prisoner._--_A Further Confidence of an Important Nature._

The reader is no doubt by this time fully aware of the character of
Edward Sommers. He was a detective, and in my employ. Day by day, as
his intimacy with William Bucholz had increased, I had been duly
informed of the fact. Step by step, as he had neared the point
desired, I had received the information and advised the course of
action.

Every night before retiring the detective would furnish me with a
detailed statement of the proceedings of the day which had passed,
and I was perfectly cognizant of the progress he made, and was fully
competent, by reason of that knowledge, to advise and direct his
future movements.

The manner of his arrest had been planned by me, and successfully
carried out; the money package had been made up in my office, and the
forged order was the handiwork of one of my clerks, and the ingenious
manner of carrying out this matter had completely deluded his
accusers, by whom the charge was made in perfect good faith.

During his occupancy of the prison he had so thoroughly won the
confidence of William Bucholz that he had become almost a necessity
to him. This guilty man, hugging to himself the knowledge of his
crime and his ill-gotten gains, had found the burden too heavy to
bear. Many times during their intercourse had he been tempted to pour
into the ears of his suddenly-discovered friend the history of his
life, and only the stern and frequently-repeated commands of his
watchful counsel had prevented the revelation. But the time had come
when, either through the fear of losing what he had risked so much to
gain, or from the impelling force of that unseen agency which seeks a
companion or a confidant, he had confided to his fellow-prisoner the
hiding-place of the old man's wealth--the money stained with the
life-blood of his master.

How much he may have been guided to this course by the question of
self-interest is a matter of speculation. He had been cruel enough to
strike this old man down and to rob him of his money. He had been
wary enough to wound himself, and to have feigned a terror which had
deluded many into a belief in his innocence. He had been sufficiently
sagacious to keep from his attorneys all knowledge of this money, and
he had repeatedly denied to Sommers, and to every one else, any
participation in the dark deed of that winter's