sharp enough to detect him to-day."

"Don't attempt any of your flatteries upon me," I protested. "They will
not make me forget that I have not been treated fairly. And Lucetta--oh!
may I not tell Lucetta----"

"And spoil our entire prospect of solving this mystery? No, madam, you
may not tell Lucetta. When Fate has put such a card into our hands as I
played with that telegram to-day, we would be flying in the face of
Providence not to profit by it. Lucetta's despair makes her bold; upon
that boldness we depend to discover and bring to justice a great
criminal."

I felt myself turn pale; for that very reason, perhaps, I assumed a
still sterner air, and composedly said:

"If Mr. Ostrander is in hiding at the Deacon's, and he and his host are
both in your confidence, then the only man whom _you_ can designate in
your thoughts by this dreadful title must be Mr. Trohm."

I had perhaps hoped he would recoil at this or give some other evidence
of his amazement at an assumption which to me seemed preposterous. But
he did not, and I saw, with what feelings may be imagined, that this
conclusion, which was half bravado with me, had been accepted by him
long enough for no emotion to follow its utterance.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "how can you reconcile such a suspicion with the
attitude you have always preserved towards Mr. Trohm?"

"Madam," said he, "do not criticise my attitude without taking into
account existing appearances. They are undoubtedly in Mr. Trohm's
favor."

"I am glad to hear you say so," said I, "I am glad to hear you say so.
Why, it was in response to his appeal that you came to X. at all."

Mr. Gryce's smile conveyed a reproach which I could not but acknowledge
I amply merited. Had he spent evening after evening at my house,
entertaining me with tales of the devices and the many inconsistencies
of criminals, to be met now by such a puerile disclaimer as this? But
beyond that smile he said nothing; on the contrary, he continued as if I
had not spoken at all.

"But appearances," he declared, "will not stand before the insight of a
girl like Lucetta. She has marked the man as guilty, and we will give
her the opportunity of proving the correctness of her instinct."

"But Mr. Trohm's house has been searched, and you have found
nothing--nothing," I argued somewhat feebly.

"That is the reason we find ourselves forced to yield our judgment to
Lucetta's intuitions," was his quick reply. And smiling upon me with