ut first, he must protect himself from the
danger of discovery; to this end he carefully removes his bloody
clothing, gathers every vestige of paper within sight, and breaks up
the waste paper baskets for fuel. He needs more flame, however, and he
takes several packages of old papers to make the fire fiercer; then his
eye falls on a slip of paper lying on the desk, and he twists it
nervously into a lighter to convey fire from the lamp to the mass of
material in the fire-place. The flame is started, and soon the clothes
are reduced to ashes. Stealthily he packs the packages of bills and the
rolls of coin, and when he has taken as much as he can carry, he slips
noiselessly away, leaving no trace of his identity. No one has seen him
enter or depart; his position is far above the reach of suspicion; every
clue has been destroyed in the fire-place, and no witness to his guilt
can possibly be raised up. So he thinks; and as month after month
passes, as detective after detective abandons the case in despair, as
the excitement dies out in the public mind, and as the friends of the
deceased apparently give up the hopeless task of seeking for the
murderer, his confidence becomes complete, and he no longer fears
detection.

"But stop! when his victim fell a bloody corpse at his feet, _was_ every
witness destroyed? No, gentlemen; helpless and lifeless as that body
fell, it yet had the power to avenge itself. The right hand convulsively
grasps a bank note, and it is hidden from sight by the position assumed
in falling; a slip of white paper dotted with figures at random, is also
covered, and is quickly saturated with blood; a fragment of paper is
found below the grate, twisted so tightly as to have burned only in
part; lastly, the direction of the blood-spirts show that the first blow
was struck on the left side. Now, gentlemen, do you think you can read
the testimony of these dumb witnesses?"

"My God! I do not know what to think," said Mr. Gordon.

"I see where your suspicions lead," said Mr. Bannatine, "but I do not
yet fully know whether I can see the evidence in the same light that you
do. Please go on and tell us all you suspect, and your reasons."

"Yes, Mr. Pinkerton," said Mr. McGregor, "whom do you suspect?"

"Gentlemen," I replied, solemnly, "I have formed no hasty conclusion in
this matter, and I should not accuse any man without the strongest
reasons for believing him guilty; but I think that when I have connected