as too much, and as there was no leaving the house then,
he retreated again to the library where he devoured his anxieties
in silence till hope revived again at sight of the diamond in the
inspector's hand, only to vanish under the machinations of one he did
not even recognize when he took the false jewel from his hand.

The American had outwitted the Englishman and the triumph of evil was
complete.

Or so it seemed. But if the Englishman is slow, he is sure. Thrown off
the track for the time being, Mr. Grey had only to see a picture of the
stiletto in the papers, to feel again that, despite all appearances,
Fairbrother was really not only at the bottom of the thefts from which
his cousin and himself had suffered, but of this frightful murder as
well. He made no open move--he was a stranger in a strange land and
much disturbed, besides, by his fears for his daughter--but he started a
secret inquiry through his old valet, whom he ran across in the street,
and whose peculiar adaptability for this kind of work he well knew.

The aim of these inquiries was to determine if the person, whom two
physicians and three assistants were endeavoring to nurse back to health
on the top of a wild plateau in a remote district of New Mexico, was
the man he had once entertained at his own board in England, and the
adventures thus incurred would make a story in itself. But the result
seemed to justify them. Word came after innumerable delays, very trying
to Mr. Grey, that he was not the same, though he bore the name of
Fairbrother, and was considered by every one around there to be
Fairbrother. Mr. Grey, ignorant of the relations between the millionaire
master and his man which sometimes led to the latter's personifying the
former, was confident of his own mistake and bitterly ashamed of his own
suspicions.

But a second message set him right. A deception was being practised
down in New Mexico, and this was how his spy had found it out. Certain
letters which went into the sick tent were sent away again, and always
to one address. He had learned the address. It was that of James
Wellgood, C--, Maine. If Mr. Grey would look up this Wellgood he would
doubtless learn something of the man he was so interested in.

This gave Mr. Grey personally something to do, for he would trust no
second party with a message involving the honor of a possibly innocent
man. As the place was accessible by railroad and his duty clear, he took
the journey invo