of which had been previously agreed upon? Then, when he
had disappeared, might it not have been the remaining funds which Jean
urged Otto to divide with him, while the latter, misled and entangled in
deception rather than naturally dishonest, held back from such a step?
I could hardly doubt so much, and it now required but a slight effort of
the imagination to complete the torn note.

The next letter of the sister was addressed to Bremen. After having
established so many particulars, I found it easily intelligible. "I have
done what I can," she wrote. "I put it in this letter; it is all I have.
But do not ask me for money again; mother is ailing most of the time,
and I have not yet dared to tell her all. I shall suffer great anxiety
until I hear that the vessel has sailed. My mistress is very good; she
has given me an advance on my wages, or I could not have sent thee any
thing. Mother thinks thou art still in Leipzig: why didst thou stay
there so long? but no difference; thy money would have gone anyhow."

It was nevertheless singular that Otto should be without money, so soon
after the appropriation of Count Kasincsky's funds. If the "20" in
the first memorandum on the leaf meant "twenty thousand rubles," as I
conjectured, and but four thousand two hundred were drawn by the Count
previous to his flight or imprisonment, Otto's half of the remainder
would amount to nearly eight thousand rubles; and it was, therefore, not
easy to account for his delay in Leipzig, and his destitute condition.

Before examining the fragments relating to the American phase of
his life,--which illustrated his previous history only by occasional
revelations of his moods and feelings,--I made one more effort to guess
the cause of his having assumed the name of "Von Herisau." The initials
signed to the order for the ring ("B. V. H.") certainly stood for the
same family name; and the possession of papers belonging to one of
the family was an additional evidence that Otto had either been in the
service of, or was related to, some Von Herisau. Perhaps a sentence in
one of the sister's letters--"Forget thy disappointment so far as _I_ am
concerned, for I never expected any thing"--referred to something of the
kind. On the whole, service seemed more likely than kinship; but in that
case the papers must have been stolen.

I had endeavored, from the start, to keep my sympathies out of the
investigation, lest they should lead me to misinterpret the b