hes had been thrown, and
thickly too. We could see his footprints plainly. Small they were, and
others--two others--one long and slim, the other shorter and broader.
They're covered at this moment with dry-goods boxes, open end down,
with a big policeman sitting upon them. They couldn't take a cast in
those soft ashes.'

'Has the body been identified?'

'There was nothing upon the body by which to identify, but it had not
been robbed. There was money and valuables in a pocket, and--a belt.'

I saw that, for some reason, Dave did not want to give me further
information, even if he possessed it. And knowing him too well to
press my questions, I remained silent until we had reached our
destination.

When we were in the presence of the dead, and the covering was about
to be lifted from the face, a sudden shock and thrill came over me,
and I hesitated for just an instant, feeling a sudden dread and
reluctance at the thought of what I might see, yet neither knowing nor
guessing.

Then slowly the officer drew away the covering, and I moved a step
nearer.

'Good heavens!' There was that natty suit of dark blue, the slight and
short figure, the olive-skin and close-cropped hair that I had seen
often.

'Do you know him?' asked Dave.

'Not by name,' I replied, and then I turned away to collect my
thoughts.

It was the brunette who lay there before me, clad now as when last we
met at the Ferris Wheel, in the garb of a man.

There he lay, slender and youthful of face and form, with the small,
clean-cut features that had made it so easy to masquerade as a dashing
brunette; the keen black eyes, seen through half-closed lids, were
staring and inscrutable, and the black marks where something had been
drawn so tightly about his neck as almost to cut into the flesh were
horrible to see.

'I do not know his name,' I again assured the officer in charge. 'I
have seen him several times disguised as a woman, and once only in the
attire in which he now lies dead. I have taken note of him as a
suspected person, and I have believed him to be a man since June 7,'
and I related briefly my reasons for this belief. But I did not make
known my belief in the dead man's connection with a gang of dangerous
criminals. There was time enough for that. Nor did I give voice to the
belief, swiftly taking shape in my mind, that he had met his death at
the hands of his comrades, and because of the letter I had caused to
appear in the morning pap