.

This speck was so small that it escaped every eye but my own.

The authorities assuring the widow that the doctor's certificate given
her in Philadelphia was correct, the body was again interred. But I was
not satisfied; and confident that this death had not been a natural one,
I entered upon one of those secret and prolonged investigations which
for so many years have constituted the pleasure of my life. First, I
visited the Colonnade in Philadelphia, and being allowed to see the room
in which Mr. Holmes died, went through it carefully. As it had not been
used since that time I had some hopes of coming upon a clue.

But it was a vain hope, and the only result of my journey to this place
was the assurance I received that the gentleman had spent the entire
evening preceding his death in his own room, where he had been brought
several letters and one small package, the latter coming by mail. With
this one point gained--if it was a point--I went back to New York.

Calling on Mrs. Holmes, I asked her if, while her husband was away, she
had sent him anything besides letters, and upon her replying to the
contrary, requested to know if in her visit to Philadelphia she had
noted among her husband's effects anything that was new or unfamiliar to
her. "For he received a package while there," I explained, "and though
its contents may have been perfectly harmless, it is just as well for us
to be assured of this before going any further."

"Oh, you think, then, he was really the victim of some secret violence."

"We have no proof of it," I said. "On the contrary, we are assured that
he died from natural causes. But the incident of the newspaper slip
outweighs, in my mind, the doctor's conclusions, and until the mystery
surrounding that obituary notice has been satisfactorily explained by
its author I shall hold to the theory that your husband has been made
away with in some strange and seemingly unaccountable manner, which it
is our duty to bring to light."

"You are right! You are right! Oh, John Graham!"

She was so carried away by this plain expression of my belief that she
forgot the question I had put to her.

"You have not said whether or not you found anything among your
husband's effects that can explain this mystery," I suggested.

She at once became attentive.

"Nothing," said she; "his trunks were already packed and his bag nearly
so. There were a few things lying about the room which I saw thrust into
the