ay. They could not
have been taken there by Howard, for he was not seen at the office after
the murder. By whom then were they returned, if not by Franklin?

"Fourth:

"The letter, for the possession of which I believe this crime to have
been perpetrated, was found by us in a supposedly secret drawer of this
gentleman's desk. It was much crumpled, and bore evidences of having
been rather rudely dealt with since it was last seen in Mrs. Van
Burnam's hand in that very office.

"But the fact which is most convincing, and which will tell most heavily
against him, is the unexpected discovery of the murdered lady's rings,
also in this same desk. How _you_ became aware that anything of such
importance could be found there, knowing even the exact place in which
they were secreted, I will not stop to ask at this moment. Enough that
when your maid entered the Van Burnam offices and insisted with so much
ingenuousness that she was expected by Mr. Van Burnam and would wait for
his return, the clerk most devoted to my interests became distrustful of
her intentions, having been told to be on the look-out for a girl in
gray or a lady in black with puffs on each side of two very sharp eyes.
You will pardon me, Miss Butterworth. He therefore kept his eyes on the
girl and presently espied her stretching out her hand towards a hook at
the side of Mr. Franklin Van Burnam's desk. As it is upon this hook this
gentleman strings his unanswered letters, the clerk rose from his place
as quickly as possible, and coming forward with every appearance of
polite solicitude,--did she not say he was polite, Miss
Butterworth?--inquired what she wished, thinking she was after some
letter, or possibly anxious for a specimen of some one's handwriting.
But she gave him no other reply than a blush and a confused look, for
which you must rebuke her, Miss Butterworth, if you are going to
continue to employ her as your agent in these very delicate affairs. And
she made another mistake. She should not have left so abruptly upon
detection, for that gave the clerk an opportunity to telephone for me,
which he immediately did. I was at liberty, and I came at once, and,
after hearing his story, decided that what was of interest to you must
be of interest to me, and so took a look at the letters she had handled,
and discovered, what she also must have discovered before she let them
slip from her hand, that the five missing rings we were all in search of
were hangin