continued
denial on his part of Louise Van Burnam being the victim might lead
sooner or later to the suspicion of her being the murderer, and
influenced by this fear, took the sudden resolution of profiting by all
the points which the two women had in common by acknowledging, what
everybody had expected him to acknowledge from the first, that the woman
at the Morgue was his wife. This would exonerate her, rid him of any
apprehension he may have entertained of her ever returning to be a
disgrace to him, and would (and perhaps this thought influenced him
most, for who can understand such men or the passions that sway them)
insure the object of his late devotion a decent burial in a Christian
cemetery. To be sure, the risk he ran was great, but the emergency was
great, and he may not have stopped to count the cost. At all events, the
fact is certain that he perjured himself when he said that it was his
wife he brought to the house from the Hotel D----, and if he perjured
himself in this regard, he probably perjured himself in others, and his
testimony is not at all to be relied upon.

Convinced though I was in my own mind that I had struck a truth which
would bear the closest investigation, I was not satisfied to act upon
it till I had put it to the test. The means I took to do this were
daring, and quite in keeping with the whole desperate affair. They
promised, however, a result important enough to make Mr. Gryce blush for
the disdain with which he had met my threats of interference.

XXI.

A SHREWD CONJECTURE.

The test of which I speak was as follows:

I would advertise for a person dressed as I believed Mrs. Van Burnam to
have been when she left the scene of crime. If I received news of such a
person, I might safely consider my theory established.

I accordingly wrote the following advertisement:

"Information wanted of a woman who applied for lodgings on the
morning of the eighteenth inst., dressed in a brown silk skirt
and a black and white plaid blouse of fashionable cut. She was
without a hat, or if a person so dressed wore a hat, then it
was bought early in the morning at some store, in which case
let shopkeepers take notice. The person answering this
description is eagerly sought for by her relatives, and to any
one giving positive information of the same, a liberal reward
will be paid. Please address, T. W. Alvord, ---- Liberty
Street."

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