l to the occasion,
however; he had always been. He was indeed a wonderful man, and he said:

"I am very glad to hear you say so. Now that I have confessed so much I
will confess more. I did believe you were guilty; I did believe that you
were the abductor."

"No, I loved her too well."

"You loved her?"

"I did."

"And did she know that you loved her?"

"She did."

"And did she love you?"

"I have reason to believe that Amalie loved me; I know that I loved
her."

"But she is a poor girl; she could not aid you to remove the mortgages
from your estates in case you should become the baron."

"It makes no difference. She is a beautiful girl, one of the loveliest
creatures I ever met in all my life. I am a sad man; I shall always be
sad."

"You shall always be sad?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I have lost her."

"Lost her?"

"Yes."

"She may reappear?"

"Never."

"Why do you say she will never reappear?"

"She has carried out her threat."

"Her threat?"

"Yes."

"What did she threaten?"

"To drown herself."

"What led her to make this threat?"

"She was despondent--very despondent. Shall I tell you all?"

"Yes, tell me all."

"She loved me; I am poor. I offered her my love and asked that she wait
until I became the baron and then I would make her my wife. She said she
could not wait."

We will leave our readers to judge of the feelings of the detective as
he listened to this singular statement. All he said was:

"Then you believe she is dead?"

"Yes."

"I do not."

"You believe she lives?"

"I do not believe, August, that she was fooling you. She is indeed a
very beautiful woman if all reports are true, for I never saw her. I am
glad, however, that you are not implicated in any way in her strange
disappearance. This shall not interfere with our friendship. I honor and
respect you, in case you have properly represented everything to me.
Shall we meet to-morrow and lunch together?"

"No, I cannot accept more bounty; you have been very kind."

"All right; we will meet again and I may have a pleasant surprise for
you."

The detective parted from the prospective young baron and returned to
his own lodgings, and once in his own room he became a very thoughtful
man. The detective muttered aloud, and there was much of suggestion in
his mutterings. He said:

"There is a mystery here within a mystery. There is something I have not
gotten on to yet. Why should this man secrete th