minal: that course I had tried, and it had failed. I
therefore determined to try and find the criminal and trace him to the
crime. The method, though not generally approved, is not so haphazard as
it might seem to be, and I have tried it successfully before when only
circumstantial evidence was available.

"White's closest associates were Van Bult, Littell, and Davis, and they
had all been with him the night of his death. I therefore immediately
put detectives on each of them and began my work on the case of Van
Bult. I went to his rooms and interviewed his servant. Van Bult left his
rooms about seven o'clock on the evening of the murder. His servant, who
slept elsewhere, did not see him again till the following morning about
half-past six, when he went again to the rooms and found Van Bult there
and assisted him in his preparations for a journey, served his
breakfast, and saw him off by the eight o'clock train from the New York
Central Depot for Buffalo. He had been told by Van Bult the evening
before of his intended trip to Buffalo, and had come early that morning
by his order. He had not seen Van Bult again till the next succeeding
evening, when he had met him at the depot, in obedience to a telegram
sent from Buffalo in the name of Van Bult.

"Van Bult's actions on the night of the murder still remained to be
accounted for, and I sought information of them elsewhere. The rooms
adjoining Van Bult's are occupied by a gentleman named Dean, who is a
friend of his. I interviewed Dean. He recalled the night of the murder
and stated that on that night Van Bult had returned to his rooms about
one o'clock. He recalled the hour because he had been up and Van Bult
had come to his room and they had remained together talking for nearly
an hour and afterwards he had heard Van Bult for some time moving about
in his own rooms.

"In the meanwhile I had sent a man to Buffalo to trace his actions while
there. He reported that Van Bult had arrived there on the afternoon
after the murder, stopped at the Wilson House till the following
morning, and had then taken a train for New York. While in Buffalo he
remained most of the time in the hotel, but made a visit to a private
insane asylum, of which his wife had for two years been an inmate.

"Van Bult's actions were thus accounted for fully and I was satisfied of
his innocence.

"Next I took up the case of Littell. He parted from Mr. Dallas a little
before one o'clock on the night of