all that, was a short, sturdy fellow, with a common face but very
brilliant eye; he it was who made the conditions; but the man who came
to get it, and who paid me twenty dollars for opening my office door
at an unusual hour, was a more gentlemanly man, with a thick, brown
mustache and resolute look. He was accompanied----"

"Why do you stop?"

The doctor smiled.

"I was wondering," said he, "if I should say he was accompanied, or that
he accompanied, a woman, of such enormous size that the doorway hardly
received her. I thought she was a patient at first, for, large as she
is, she was brought into my room in a chair, which it took four men to
carry. But she only came about the box."

"Madame!" I muttered; and being made still more eager by this discovery
of her direct participation in its carrying off, I asked if she touched
the box or whether it was taken away unopened.

The doctor's answer put an end to every remaining hope I may have
cherished.

"She not only touched but opened it. I saw the lid rise and heard a
whirr. What is the matter, sir?"

"Nothing," I made haste to say--"that is, nothing I can communicate
just now. This woman must be followed," I signified to the officer, and
was about to rush from the room when my eye fell on the table where the
box stood.

"See!" said I, pointing to a fine wire protruding from a small hole
in the center of its upper surface; "this box had connection with some
point outside of this room."

The doctor's face flushed, and for the first time he looked a trifle
foolish.

"So I perceive _now,_" said he, "The workman who put up this box
evidently took liberties in my absence. For _that_ I was not paid."

"This wire leads where?" asked the officer.

"Rip up the floor and see. I know no other way to find out."

"But that would take time, and we have not a minute to lose," said I,
and was disappearing for the second time when I again stopped. "Doctor,"
said I, "when you consented to harbor this box under such peculiar
conditions and allowed yourself to receive such good pay for a service
involving so little inconvenience to yourself, you must have had some
idea of the uses to which so mysterious an article would be put. What
did you suppose them to be?"

"To tell you the truth, I thought it was some new-fangled lottery
scheme, and I have still to learn that I was mistaken."

I gave him a look, but did not stop to undeceive him.

VI. THE BOX AGAIN.

But o