with me."

"Take it, by all means."

As Sweetwater turned to go, he was induced by the silence of his patron
to cast a backward glance. Mr. Gryce had risen to his feet and was
leaning toward him with an evident desire to speak.

"My boy," said he, "if your dreams lead you to undertake the search I
have mentioned, spare nobody; I say, spare _nobody_."

Then he sat down; and the memory which Sweetwater carried away with him
of the old detective at the moment he uttered this final injunction was
far from being a cheerful one.

XIII

"WRITE ME HIS NAME"

Refreshed by a good night's rest and quite ready to take up his task
again, Mr. Gryce sat at the same table in the early morning, awaiting the
expected message from Sweetwater. Meanwhile he studied, with a fuller
attention than he had been able to give it the evening before, the
memorandum which this young fellow had handed him of his day's work. A
portion of this may be interesting to the reader. Against the list of
people registered on his chart as present in the museum at the moment of
tragedy, he had inscribed such details concerning them as he could gather
in the short time allotted him.

* * * * *

I--Ephraim Short. A sturdy New Englander visiting New York for the first
time. Has a big story to take back. Don't care much for broken marbles
and pictures so dingy you cannot tell what you are looking at; but the
sight of a lot of folks standing up like scarecrows in a field, here and
there all over a great building, because something had happened to
somebody, will make a story the children will listen to for years.

Address taken, and account of himself verified by telegraph.

II--Mrs. Lynch. Widow, with a small house in Jersey and money to support
it. No children. Interested in church work. Honest and of reliable
character. Only fault a physical one--extreme nervousness.

III--Mr. Carleton Roberts, director; active in his work, member of the
Union League and an aspirant for the high office of U. S. Senator. Lives
in bachelor apartment, 67 W. ---- Street. A universally respected man of
unquestioned integrity and decided importance. Close friend of Curator
Jewett.

IV--Eben Clarke, door-man. Been long in the employ of museum. Considered
entirely trustworthy. Home in decent quarter of West 80th Street. Wife
and nine children, mostly grown. Never been abroad. Has no foreign
correspondence.

V--Emma Sutton, an art enth