t, about his having warned all
the dealers, thrown in gratuitously for my benefit, and to lead me to
suppose that some one else stole the stone? If so, why does he now let
me know that he saw me?"

CHAPTER XIII.

MR. BARNES GOES SOUTH.

Mr. Barnes now began some researches into the past history of Mr.
Alphonse Thauret. Obtaining the date of his first registry at the
Hoffman House he found that to be about a month before the train robbery
occurred. Finding the expressman who had brought his baggage to the
hotel, it transpired that it had been taken from an English steamship,
yet the name Thauret did not appear upon the list of passengers. As it
was certain, however, that the man must have arrived by the ship, it was
evident that "Thauret" was an alias. Mr. Barnes copied the ship's list
for future reference. A search for the name Rose Mitchel was fruitless,
though extended to the passenger lists of all arriving steamers for two
months prior to the murder.

Believing that Mr. Thauret must have some communication with foreign
friends, and hoping to obtain some clue by the post-marks of any such
letters, Mr. Barnes arranged an espionage of the man's mail. But though
the hotel clerk reported to him daily for several weeks, there was not
one foreign letter. As to money, Mr. Thauret appeared to be well
supplied, paying his board-bills promptly with checks upon a neighboring
national bank, in which it was ascertained that he had deposited to his
credit several thousand dollars.

Thus after a long investigation, Mr. Barnes was chagrined to admit that
he had discovered nothing save that Mr. Thauret had come across the
ocean under an assumed name, and even this meagre knowledge was a mere
matter of inference.

Though baffled in this direction Mr. Barnes had been more successful in
another effort which he essayed. This was a line of investigation which
he inaugurated, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the child Rose
Mitchel, who was so skilfully kept in hiding. He had first instructed
Lucette as to the part she was to play, and that young woman, anxious
once more to stand well with her employer, had exerted herself to her
utmost, entirely succeeding in her mission. This was to obtain some of
the writing of the child. "Go to the house again," Mr. Barnes had
suggested, "and get into conversation with that same servant who met you
at the door on your first visit. Then in some manner obtain a specimen
of the child's