ER XVIII.

The Detective at Bismarck--Further Traces of the Fugitive--A Protracted
Orgie--A Jewish Friend of the Burglar in Trouble.

On arriving in Minneapolis, Manning was able to discover without serious
difficulty that Duncan, after remaining in that city two days, had
purchased a ticket over the Northern Pacific railroad for Bismarck, a
thriving town in Dakota. This information he had been able to gain by a
resort to his old method of visiting the houses of ill-fame, and then
carelessly exposing Duncan's photograph to the various inmates, in such
a manner as to excite no suspicion of his real errand. His experience
thus far had been that Duncan, either to evade pursuit, to gratify
bestial passion, or to endeavor by such excitements to drive away the
haunting fear that oppressed him, had invariably sought the
companionship of the harlot and the profligate. Being possessed of
plenty of money, it may be imagined that he experienced no difficulty in
finding associates willing to minister to his appetites, and to assist
him in forgetting the dangers that threatened him, by dissipation and
debauchery. All along his path were strewn these evidences of reckless
abandonment, which, while they temporarily enabled him to drown the
remembrances of his crime, yet, at the same time, they served most
powerfully to point out to his pursuer the road he was traveling.

It appeared, therefore, that my first theories were correct, and that
Thomas Duncan was making his way to the far western country, where,
beyond the easy and expeditious mode of communication by railroad and
telegraph, he would be safe from pursuit. He was evidently seeking to
reach the mining district, where, among men as reckless as himself, he
hoped to evade the officers of law.

Manning lost no time in following up the clew he had obtained in
Minneapolis, and so, purchasing a ticket for Bismarck, he was soon
thundering on his way to the Missouri river. At Brainerd, at Fargo in
Minnesota, and at Jamestown in Dakota, during the time when the train
had stopped for some necessary purpose, he had made inquiries, and at
each place was rewarded by gleaning some information, however
fragmentary, of the fugitive. He was therefore assured that he was upon
the trail, and that unless something unforeseen occurred, he would
sooner or later overtake the object of his pursuit.

On the following day Manning arrived at Bismarck, a thrifty and growing
little town on the bank