II. MR. BARNES GOES SOUTH 189

XIV. AN INTERRUPTED WEDDING 208

XV. MR. MITCHEL EXPLAINS A FEW THINGS 223

XVI. MR. BARNES DISCOVERS A VALUABLE CLUE 239

XVII. A NEW YEAR'S DINNER PARTY 255

XVIII. MR. BARNES'S NARRATIVE 273

AN ARTIST IN CRIME.

CHAPTER I.

A GENTLEMAN THINKS HE CAN COMMIT A CRIME AND ESCAPE DETECTION.

"Jack Barnes never gets left, you bet."

"That was a close call, though," replied the Pullman porter who had
given Mr. Barnes a helping hand, in his desperate effort to board the
midnight express as it rolled out of Boston. "I wouldn't advise you to
jump on moving trains often."

"Thank you for your good advice, and for your assistance. Here's a
quarter for you. Show me to my section, I am nearly dead, I am so
tired."

"Upper ten, right this way, sir. It is all ready for you to turn in."

When Mr. Barnes entered the coach, no one was in sight. If there were
other passengers, they were abed. A few minutes later, he himself was
patting two little bags of feathers, and placing one atop of the other
in a vain attempt to make them serve as one pillow. He had told the
porter that he was tired, and this was so true that he should have
fallen asleep quickly. Instead, his brain seemed specially active, and
sleep impossible.

Mr. Barnes, Jack Barnes, as he called himself to the porter, was a
detective, and counted one of the shrewdest in New York, where he
controlled a private agency established by himself. He had just
completed what he considered a most satisfactory piece of work. A large
robbery had been committed in New York, and suspicion of the strongest
nature had pointed in the direction of a young man who had immediately
been arrested. For ten days the press of the country had been trying and
convicting the suspect, during which time Mr. Barnes had quietly left
the Metropolis. Twelve hours before we met him, those who read the
papers over their toast had been amazed to learn that the suspect was
innocent, and that the real criminal had been apprehended by the
keen-witted Jack Barnes. What was better, he had recovered the lost
funds, amounting to thirty thousand dollars.

He had had a long chase after his man, whom he had shadowed from city to
city and watched day and night, actuated to this course by a slight clue
in which he had placed his faith. Now, his man fast in a Bost