d sometimes amused himself with surprising his simple-hearted landlady
and her boarders with the unaccountable results of his sagacity. One
thing was quite beyond her comprehension. She was perfectly sure that
Mr. Gridley could see out of the back of his head, just as other people
see with their natural organs. Time and again he had told her what
she was doing when his back was turned to her, just as if he had been
sitting squarely in front of her. Some laughed at this foolish notion;
but others, who knew more of the nebulous sciences, told her it was
like's not jes' so. Folks had read letters laid ag'in' the pits o' their
stomachs, 'n' why should n't they see out o' the backs o' their heads?

Now there was a certain fact at the bottom of this belief of Mrs.
Hopkins; and as it world be a very small thing to make a mystery of so
simple a matter, the reader shall have the whole benefit of knowing all
there is in it,--not quite yet, however, of knowing all that came of it.
It was not the mirror trick, of course, which Mrs. Felix Lorraine and
other dangerous historical personages have so long made use of. It was
nothing but this: Mr. Byles Gridley wore a pair of formidable spectacles
with large round glasses. He had often noticed the reflection of objects
behind him when they caught their images at certain angles, and had got
the habit of very often looking at the reflecting surface of one or the
other of the glasses, when he seemed to be looking through them. It put
a singular power into his possession, which might possibly hereafter
lead to something more significant than the mystification of the Widow
Hopkins.

A short time before Myrtle Hazard's disappearance, Mr. Byles Gridley had
occasion to call again at the office of Penhallow and Bradshaw on some
small matter of business of his own. There were papers to look over, and
he put on his great round-glassed spectacles. He and Mr. Penhallow sat
down at the table, and Mr. Bradshaw was at a desk behind them. After
sitting for a while, Mr. Penhallow seemed to remember something he had
meant to attend to, for he said all at once: "Excuse me, Mr. Gridley.
Mr. Bradshaw, if you are not busy, I wish you would look over this
bundle of papers. They look like old receipted bills and memoranda of no
particular use; but they came from the garret of the Withers place, and
might possibly have something that would be of value. Look them over,
will you, and see whether there is anything t