y, to prevent delay and temporary embarrassment, there was
plenty of gold for present needs in the pockets of the one garment which
I had put on before escaping. Everything else which I had brought to the
Santa Anna Hotel was lost; but never, perhaps, was a man more completely
indifferent to such loss than I. The only thing on the American side of
the Atlantic which now interested me was to find out whether the false
Harvey Farnham had actually (by an irony of fate) perished in the
flames, or whether--as I more than suspected--he himself was responsible
for the fire.

It would be impossible to ascertain the truth until such time as the
ruins of the burnt wing of the hotel should have sufficiently cooled to
render a search practicable. Even then, if no other measures were taken,
the fact might never be absolutely substantiated. If nothing more was
ever heard of Harvey Farnham, it would probably be taken for granted
that he had met his death in the fire at the Santa Anna Hotel, even
though no actual traces of his body were forthcoming. His heirs, whoever
they might be, would doubtless claim their inheritance, and even
assurance money, if such there were to be had, before many months had
passed. Carson Wildred would be for ever safe, and my quest would have
ended in nothing but bitterness and disappointment.

This being the case, I could not afford to wait until the burnt building
should be ransacked for Harvey Farnham's remains, I must take it for
granted that no such remains were there, and go in search of the living,
breathing body. I tried to put myself mentally in place of the man who
had stolen his identity from the dead. Were I he, I thought, and had I
done that of which I believed he had been guilty, I would lose no time
in putting myself beyond the reach of possible pursuit. I would have
laid my plans with some exactitude, and would have been prepared for the
necessity of flight. I would have thrown aside as many details of my
likeness to Harvey Farnham as nature had not provided me with, and
having set fire to the room I had occupied, I would have got out of the
hotel as quietly and quickly as practicable. If it had been
comparatively easy for me to escape by means of the creepers down the
side of the house, the same means might well have been employed by the
man whose movements I was mentally trying to follow.

Success having attended my movements so far, I should have gone straight
to a railway station, and w