nspect that private workshop in the rear of
Mr. Slocum's house. How shall I accomplish it? I cannot apply to him
for permission, for that would provoke questions which I am not ready
to answer. Moreover, I have yet to assure myself that Mr. Slocum is
not implicated. There seems to have been also a hostile feeling
existing between him and the deceased. Why didn't some one tell me
these things at the start! If young Shackford is the person, there is
a tangled story to be unraveled. _Mem:_ Young Shackford is Miss
Slocum's lover."

Mr. Slocum read this passage twice without drawing breath, and
then laid down the book an instant to wipe the sudden perspiration
from his forehead.

In the note which followed, Mr. Taggett described the difficulty
he met with in procuring a key to fit the wall-door at the rear of
the marble yard, and gave an account of his failure to effect an
entrance into the studio. He had hoped to find a window unfastened;
but the window, as well as the door opening upon the veranda, was
locked, and in the midst of his operations, which were conducted at
noon-time, the approach of a servant had obliged him to retreat.

Forced to lay aside, at least temporarily, his designs on the
workshop, he turned his attention to Richard's lodgings in Lime
Street. Here Mr. Taggett was more successful. On the pretext that he
had been sent for certain drawings which were to be found on the
table or in a writing-desk, he was permitted by Mrs. Spooner to
ascend to the bedroom, where she obligingly insisted on helping him
search for the apocryphal plans, and seriously interfered with his
purpose, which was to find the key of the studio. While Mr. Taggett
was turning over the pages of a large dictionary, in order to gain
time, and was wondering how he could rid himself of the old lady's
importunities, he came upon a half-folded note-sheet, at the bottom
of which his eye caught the name of Lemuel Shackford. It was in the
handwriting of the dead man. Mr. Taggett was very familiar with that
handwriting. He secured the paper at a venture, and put it in his
pocket without examination.

A few minutes later, it being impossible to prolong the pretended
quest for the drawings, Mr. Taggett was obliged to follow Mrs.
Spooner from the apartment. As he did so he noticed a bright object
lying on the corner of the mantel-shelf,--a small nickel-plated key.
In order to take it he had only to reach out his hand in passing. It
was, as Mr.