going on on the other side of the wall,
Sweetwater had forgotten himself. Daylight had declined, but in the
darkness of the closet this change had passed unheeded. Night itself
might come, but that should not force him to leave his post so long as
his neighbour remained behind his locked door, brooding over the words
of love and devotion which had come to him, as it were from the other
world.

But was he brooding? That sound of iron clattering upon iron!
That smothered exclamation and the laugh which ended it! Anger and
determination rang in that laugh. It had a hideous sound which prepared
Sweetwater for the smell which now reached his nostrils. The letters
were burning; this time the lid had been lifted from the stove with
unrelenting purpose. Poor Edith Challoner's touching words had met,
a different fate from any which she, in her ignorance of this man's
nature,--a nature to which she had ascribed untold perfections--could
possibly have conceived.

As Sweetwater thought of this, he stirred nervously in the darkness,
and broke into silent invective against the man who could so insult the
memory of one who had perished under the blight of his own coldness
and misunderstanding. Then he suddenly started back surprised and
apprehensive. Brotherson had unlocked his door, and was coming rapidly
his way. Sweetwater heard his step in the hall and had hardly time
to bound from his closet, when he saw his own door burst in and found
himself face to face with his redoubtable neighbour, in a state of such
rage as few men could meet without quailing, even were they of his own
stature, physical vigour and prowess; and Sweetwater was a small man.

However, disappointment such as he had just experienced brings with it a
desperation which often outdoes courage, and the detective, smiling with
an air of gay surprise, shouted out:

"Well, what's the matter now? Has the machine busted, or tumbled into
the fire or sailed away to lands unknown out of your open window?"

"You were coming out of that closet," was the fierce rejoinder. "What
have you got there? Something which concerns me, or why should your face
go pale at my presence and your forehead drip with sweat? Don't think
that you've deceived me for a moment as to your business here. I
recognised you immediately. You've played the stranger well, but you've
a nose and an eye nobody could forget. I have known all along that I
had a police spy for a neighbour; but it didn't faze