refore, fully exposed to examination, and proved to be those of
a woman who must have been very handsome. There was the cicatrice of an
old wound on a lower limb, but otherwise there was no spot or blemish
upon the body.

"In due time the body was buried; but the head was removed, and preserved
in the office of the city physician, with the hope that it might be the
means of establishing the identity of the dead, and leading to the
detection of the murderer.

"The police on both sides of the river were intensely interested in the
case; but they found themselves impotent before that head of a woman, who
seemed to have never been seen upon earth in life. They could do
nothing, therefore, but wait patiently for whatever developments time
might bring.

"Chance finally led to the desired identification. A gentleman who had
known her intimately for two years, happening to see the head, at once
declared it to be that of Ada Ricard. The Detectives eagerly clutched at
this thread, and were soon in possession of the coincidence in time of
her disappearance and that of the barrel of pitch to which the body was
lashed. They further found that, since that time, she had not been seen
in the city, nor could any trace of her be discovered in other sections
of the country, through correspondence with the police authorities of
distant cities. They had thus a woman lost and a body found, and the
case was considered to be in a most promising condition.

"The next step was to establish the identity by the testimony of those
who had known the missing woman most intimately. The Detectives,
therefore, instituted a search, which was finally successful, for Charles
Ricard, her putative husband. He had not lived with her for some time,
and had not even seen or heard of her for months; but his recollection
was perfect, and he gave a very minute statement of her distinguishing
marks. He remembered that she had persisted in wearing a pair of very
heavy earrings, until their weight had slit one of her ears entirely, and
the other nearly so, and that, as a consequence, both ears had been
pierced a second time, and unusually high up. He regretted that her
splendid array of teeth had been marred by the loss of one upon the left
side of the mouth, and told how a wound had been received, whose
cicatrice appeared upon one of her limbs, stating exactly its location.
He dwelt with some pride upon the fact that she had been forced, by the
unusual