sum stolen from the bank. The packages of bills were
replaced in the box, which was then locked up in the vault.

I sent instructions by Andrews to Mrs. Potter to again make use of the
blood about Drysdale's house, and I also ordered Green to keep watch
during the night. The next morning Andrews reported that Drysdale's
terror on discovering the blood had been greater than he had ever shown
before, and that he was fast breaking down. I therefore held a
consultation with the bank officers.

"Now, gentlemen," I said, "we have recovered the money, and we have
sufficient evidence to convict the murderer. I think it is time to
arrest him; don't you?"

To tell the truth, I was in no easy frame of mind myself. I was morally
sure of Drysdale's guilt, but I had no legal evidence which was
sufficient to convict him in case he should maintain his innocence.
Moreover I had assumed a terrible responsibility in taking such extreme
measures with him, for there was danger that he might go insane without
confessing his guilt, and in that case my position would have been
really dangerous. I should have been accused of driving him crazy with
no proper justification for my actions, and the result might have been
most disastrous to me. The fact that I, an unknown man from the North,
had driven a high-toned Southern gentleman insane, would have been
sufficient to hang me by the summary process of lynch law.

The fact that part of the money had been found on his plantation, would
be only circumstantial evidence, since another man might have buried it
there as well as Drysdale. His visits to the spots where the money was
concealed, were not conclusive of guilt, since he was a somnambulist,
and in his sleep-walking he was not responsible for his actions. Mrs.
Potter suggested to me that he might have been sleep-walking the night
of the murder, and (while in that condition,) he might have followed the
murderer to the spot where the gold was hidden; it would then be nothing
strange that he should go to the same spot in his subsequent
night-wanderings.

It will thus be easily understood that during the remainder of my
connection with the case, I was in a highly wrought up frame of mind.
Indeed, when I came to make the arrest, it would have been hard to tell
whether Drysdale or I was the more excited. In reply to my question,
Mr. Bannatine instructed me to take whatever course I saw fit, as they
were all perfectly satisfied with my management