"I must examine the dead man's personal effects, his baggage, his
papers; there may be something there. His queer letter to Graumann--his
desire that the latter's visit should be kept secret--a visit which
apparently had no cause at all, except to get Graumann to the house, to
get him to the house in a way that he should be seen coming, but should
not be seen going away. What does this mean?

"Graumann was the only person against whom Siders had an active cause of
quarrel for the moment. There was one other man whom he hated, and this
other man was the prosecuting attorney who would conduct any case of
murder that came up in the town of G--.

"Now John Siders is found murdered--is found killed, in his lodgings,
the morning after he has arranged things so that his antagonist, his
rival in love, Albert Graumann, shall come under suspicion of having
murdered him.

"What evidence have we that this man did not commit suicide? We have the
evidence of the disorder in the room, a disorder that could have been
made just as well by the man himself before he ended his own life. We
have the evidence of a letter to some unknown, making plans for
pleasure during the next days, and speaking of further plans, presumably
concerning business, for the future. In a town the size of G--, where
every one must have read of the murder, no one has come forward claiming
to be the friend for whom this letter was written. Until this Unknown
makes himself known, the letter as an evidence points rather to
premeditated suicide than to the contrary. Oh, if I could only have seen
the body! They tell me the pistol was found some little distance from
the body. Is it at all likely that a murderer would go away leaving such
evidence behind him? If Graumaun had killed Siders in a hasty quarrel,
he might possibly, in his excitement, have left his revolver. But I have
already disposed of this possibility. A man of sufficient brains to
so carefully plan his suicide as to conceal every trace of it and cast
suspicion upon the man who had made him unhappy, such a one would be
quite clever enough to throw the pistol far away from his body and to
leave no traces of powder on his coat or any such other evidence.

"If I were to say now what I think, I would say that John Siders
deliberately took his own life and planned it in such a way as to cast
suspicion upon Albert Graumann. But that would indeed be a terrible
revenge. And I must have some tangible proof of