.

"Why, man alive!" he exclaimed, "Marathon Park is the very next station
to West Sedgwick!"

"So it is!" I said; "I knew I had a hazy idea of having seen the name,
but the trains I have taken to and from New York have been expresses,
which didn't stop there, and I paid no attention to it."

"It's a small park," went on Parmalee, "of swagger residences; very
exclusive and reserved, you know. You've certainly unearthed startling
news, but I can't help thinking that it will be a wild goose chase that
leads us to look for our criminal in Marathon Park!"

"What do you think we'd better do?" said I. "Go to see Mrs. Cunningham?"

"No, I wouldn't do that," said Parmalee, who had a sort of plebeian
hesitancy at the thought of intruding upon aristocratic strangers.
"Suppose you write her a letter and just ask her if she has lost her
bag."

"All right," I conceded, for truth to tell, I greatly preferred to stay
in West Sedgwick than to go out of it, for I had always the undefined
hope of seeing Florence Lloyd.

So I wrote a letter, not exactly curt, but strictly formal, asking Mrs.
Cunningham if she had recently lost a gold-mesh bag, containing her
gloves and handkerchief.

Then Parmalee and I agreed to keep the matter a secret until we should
get a reply to this, for we concluded there was no use in stirring up
public curiosity on the matter until we knew ourselves that we were on
the right trail.

XVII. THE OWNER OF THE GOLD BAG

The next day I received a letter addressed in modish, angular
penmanship, which, before I opened it, I felt sure had come from Mrs.
Cunningham. It ran as follows,

Mr. HERBERT Burroughs,

Dear Sir: Yes, I have lost a gold bag, and I have known all along that
it is the one the newspapers are talking so much about in connection
with the Crawford case. I know, too, that you are the detective on the
case, and though I can't imagine how you did it, I think it was awfully
clever of you to trace the bag to me, for I'm sure my name wasn't in it
anywhere. As I say, the bag is mine, but I didn't kill Mr. Crawford, and
I don't know who did. I would go straight to you, and tell you all about
it, but I am afraid of detectives and lawyers, and I don't want to be
mixed up in the affair anyway. But I am going to see Miss Lloyd, and
explain it all to her, and then she can tell you. Please don't let my
name get in the papers, as I hate that sort of prominence.

Very truly yours,

ELIZABETH CU