he found
everything within in a promiscuous pile. Evidently it had been hastily
searched and carelessly repacked. Mr. Barnes took each article out and
examined it closely. Everything upon which a name might have been
written showed a place where a piece had been cut out. "There must be
some good reason for hiding this woman's identity, or the scoundrel
would not have been so thorough in his work," thought Mr. Barnes. Just
then in replacing the clothing he heard a crinkling sound which
indicated that a bit of paper was in the pocket of the garment. Hastily
he withdrew it, and was delighted to observe writing. "A clue at last,"
he murmured, hurrying to the front-room window to read it. For what he
found see p. 44.

This was all, no name being signed. Mr. Barnes regretted this last fact,
but felt that he held a most important paper in his hand, since it
seemed to be corroborative of the woman's statement that she had lost a
lot of unset jewels. It was of great value to have so minute a
description of the stolen gems. Folding the paper carefully, he placed
it in his wallet, and then returned to the vicinity of the corpse.
Looking closely at the cut in the neck, the detective determined that
the assassin had used an ordinary pocket-knife, for the wound was
neither deep nor long. It severed the jugular vein, which seemed to have
been the aim of the murderer. It was from this circumstance that the
detective decided that the woman had been attacked as she slept. This
aroused the question "Did the murderer have the means of entering the
house without attracting attention? Either he must have had a night-key,
or else some one must have admitted him." Mr. Barnes started as the
thought recurred to him that Wilson had seen Mr. Mitchel enter the
house some time before the scream was heard, and depart some time after.
Was this the woman who had accompanied him to the theatre? If so, how
could she have retired and fallen to sleep so quickly? Evidently further
light must be thrown upon this aspect of the case.

[Illustration: List of Jewels.

One Diamond--15-1/4 carats-- $15,000
One Emerald--15-1/8 carats-- 15,000
One Ruby--15-3/8 carats-- 20,000
One Sapphire--10 carats-- 5,000
One Pearl--Pear shaped--white-- 15000
One Pearl--Pear shaped--Black--10,000
One Pearl--white--egg shaped-- 5,000
One Pearl--Black--egg shaped-- 5,000
One Canary Diamond---- 5,000