ne till the time
for the ceremony, and after the marriage was seen to take his bride away
in one carriage while the old gentleman departed in another. The latter
concerned me little; it was the young couple I had been detailed to
find. Employing the usual means of search, I tracked them to the
Waldorf, where I learned what makes it certain that I have been
following the right couple. On the afternoon of the very day of Mr.
Adams's death, this young husband and wife left the hotel on foot and
did not come back. Their clothes, which had all been left behind, were
taken away two days later by an elderly gentleman who said he was her
father and whose appearance coincides with that of the person
registering as such at the Imperial. All of which looks favorable to my
theory, does it not, especially when you remember that the bridegroom's
name----"

"You have not told it."

"Is Adams, Thomas Adams. Same family as the murdered man, you see. At
least, he has the same name."

Mr. Gryce surveyed the young man with admiration, but was not yet
disposed to yield him entire credence.

"Humph! I do not wonder you thought it worth your while to follow up the
pair, if one of them is named Adams and the other Eva. But, Sweetwater,
the longer you serve on the force the more you will learn that
coincidences as strange and unexpected as these do occur at times, and
must be taken into account in the elucidation of a difficult problem.
Much as I may regret to throw cold water on your hopes, there are
reasons for believing that the young man and woman whom we are seeking
are not the ones you have busied yourself about for the last two days.
Certain facts which have come to light would seem to show that if she
had a husband at all, his name would not be Thomas Adams, but Felix, and
as the facts I have to bring forward are most direct and unimpeachable,
I fear you will have to start again, and on a new tack."

But Sweetwater remained unshaken, and eyed his superior with a vague
smile playing about his lips.

"You have not asked me, sir, where I have spent all the time which has
elapsed since I saw you last. The investigations I have mentioned did
not absorb more than a day."

"Very true. Where have you been, Sweetwater?"

"To Montgomery, sir, to that small town in Pennsylvania from which Mr.
Poindexter and his daughter registered."

"Ah, I see! And what did you learn there? Something directly to the
point?"

"I learned this, that Jo