, and on receiving the reports of each I decided to put
my men in her rooms, where one of them could constantly observe her
actions, and never under any circumstances give her an opportunity to
make any new move without my knowledge. I therefore sent another man to
Rochester for outside work, and directed Bristol to accept the woman's
proposition and become her lodger, and, as soon after as possible
without exciting her suspicions, appear to become acquainted with Fox,
recommend him as a lodger, and secure his introduction to the place as
M. D. Lyford, a book-keeper in some establishment of the city which they
might settle upon, so that he might relieve Bristol, and _vice versa_,
as occasion required.

So the furnished rooms sign went up over the clairvoyant sign, and Mrs.
Winslow added to the charms of handsome medium those of an attractive
landlady, while the three old maids under Washington Hall lost their
prize, who became a sort of an aged page to the castaway woman who had
such luxurious rooms for rent in the autumn of 186-, on South St. Paul
street, near Meech's Opera-house, in the beautiful city of Rochester.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Harcout again.-- "Things going slow."-- A Bit of personal
History.-- A new Tenant.-- Detective Generalship.-- Mrs.
Winslow fears she is watched.-- Mr. Pinkerton cogitates.

It is pleasant to realize that the world moves along just the same,
whether the many mild lunatics it carries attempt to interfere with it
or not. There are countless men, precisely like Harcout, incapable of
holding in their little brains but one idea at a time, and that idea
invariably pushes to the surface their own supreme egotism and
self-consciousness, and just as invariably displays their utter
ignorance of what they are continually interfering with; and it is both
a grateful and charitable thought that such small minds, burdened with
such vast assurance, are merely provided by Omniscience to make us
patient, to warn us from allowing such knowledge as we may fortunately
gain from developing into similar self-assertion, and to serve to
illustrate true worth by contrast.

Here was this fellow sweeping into my office every day, demanding every
detail of my operations on Mrs. Winslow, even intimating that I should
consult with him as to every move to be made, and submit to his
consideration even the character of the men employed, the color of their
clothing and the quality, and every item o