n speaking. My
men have shadowed her in connection with another affair."

"What other affair?"

"Abduction."

"Abduction? Absurd! Who on earth has Miss Remsen abducted?"

"The girl Rose Mitchel."

"And who, pray, is the girl Rose Mitchel? The daughter of the murdered
woman?"

"Perhaps. That is what I intend to discover. She passed however, as your
daughter."

"Ah! Now can you prove that she is not?"

"No."

"Very good. Then, so far as your information goes, Rose Mitchel who
passed as my daughter, was removed from a certain house, to a certain
other house, to you unknown." He paused a moment as though to enjoy Mr.
Barnes's discomfiture, then continued: "She was taken, so you suspect,
but cannot prove, by Miss Remsen. Now, then, if Miss Remsen, my
affianced wife, takes a girl who is my own child from one house to
another, where is the abduction so long as I make no complaint?"

"Let us drop this nonsense, Mr. Mitchel. You know very well that that
child was removed for a purpose, else she would not be hidden away. If
Miss Remsen had a hand in this, she was aiding you to baffle detective
investigation, and that was an illegal act. Therefore we have the right
to watch her, in order to discover what we can."

"Very well, then we will grant you that privilege. Much good may it do
you. But as to the removal of the child, that was done because your spy
Lucette had discovered where she was, and I did not choose to have her
annoyed."

"What makes you so certain that this Lucette was my spy, as you term
it?"

"Well, I don't mind telling you that, though perhaps I am showing my
hand a little. Let us go to the beginning. In the first place you knew
about my bet, and I knew that you knew that much. From that
starting-point what more natural than for me to suppose that you would
begin by having me shadowed. To be sure of this, I made a few trips on
the elevated road, a structure peculiarly applicable for such a test,
with the result of course that I soon became pretty well acquainted with
your assistant. Whenever I had nothing else to do, I would amuse myself
getting away from him. You gave me occupation for several hours I assure
you. But to come to Lucette. I guessed that the next step in your game
would be to supply spy number two, who would take up the trail wherever
spy number one would lose it. I began to look for this second man. See,
I admit that I did not count upon a woman. You beat me there, or almost
did.