on.

"What do you think of the watchman, Fanning?"

"Think? we don't think," uttered Mr. Stuyvesant sharply. "He has been in
the employ of the bank for twelve years, and we know him to be honest."

"Yet he is the man who stole your bonds."

"Impossible!"

"The very man."

Mr. Sylvester stepped up to him. "Who are you, and how do you know
this?"

"I have said my name is Cummins, and I know this, because I have wormed
myself into the man's confidence and have got the bonds, together with
his confession, here in my pocket." And he drew out the long lost bonds,
which he handed to their owner, with a bit of paper on which was
in-scribed in the handwriting of the watchman, an acknowledgment to the
effect that he, alone and unassisted, had perpetrated the robbery which
had raised such scandal in the bank and led to the disappearance of
Hopgood.

"And the man himself?" cried Bertram, when they had all read this.
"Where is he?"

"Oh, I allowed him to escape."

Mr. Sylvester frowned.

"There is something about this I don't understand," said he. "How came
you to take such an interest in this matter; and why did you let the man
escape after acknowledging his crime?"

With a quick, not undignified action, Cummins stepped back. "Gentlemen,"
said he, "it is allowable in a detective in the course of his duty, to
resort to means for eliciting the truth, that in any other cause and for
any other purpose, would be denominated as unmanly, if not mean and
contemptible. When I heard of this robbery, as I did the day after its
perpetration, my mind flew immediately to the watchman as the possible
culprit. I did not know that he had done the deed, and I did not see how
he could have possessed the means of doing it, but I had been acquainted
with him for some time, and certain expressions which I had overheard
him use--expressions that had passed over me lightly at the time, now
recurred to my mind with startling distinctness. 'If a man knew the
combination of the vault door, how easily he could make himself rich
from the contents of those boxes!' was one, I remember; and another, 'I
have worked in the bank for twelve years and have not so much money laid
up against a rainy day, as would furnish Mr. Sylvester in cigars for a
month.' The fact that he had no opportunity to learn the combination,
was the only stumbling-block in the way of my conclusions. But that
obstacle was soon removed. In a talk with the janitor's wife--a good