she glanced at the letter I
held out, with an air of distrust mingled with curiosity.

"'You cut me short in my efforts to do a charitable action. I heard,
no matter how, that you were interested just now in a destitute
family, and took this way of assisting you in their behalf.'

"Her blue eyes opened wider. 'The poor are always with us,' she
replied, 'but I know of no especial family just now that requires any
such help as you intimate. If I did, papa would give me what
assistance I needed.'

"I was greatly pleased to hear her say this, for I am very fond of my
young friend, but I was deeply indignant also against the unknown
person who had taken advantage of my regard for this young girl to
force money from me. I therefore did not linger at her side, but after
due apologies hastened immediately here where there is a man employed
who to my knowledge had once been a trusted member of the police.

"Telling him no more of the story than was necessary to ensure his
co-operation in the plan I had formed to discover the author of this
fraud, I extracted the bank-notes from the letter I had written, and
put in their place stiff pieces of manila paper. Taking the envelope
so filled to the hotel already referred to, I placed it at the opening
chapters of Isaiah in the Bible, as described. There was no one in any
of the rooms when I went in, and I encountered only a bell-boy as I
came out, but at the door I ran against a young man whom I strictly
forbore to recognize, but whom I knew to be my improvised detective
coming to take his stand in some place where he could watch the parlor
and note who went into it.

"At noon I returned to the hotel, passed immediately to the small
parlor and looked into the Bible. The letter was gone. Coming out of
the room, I was at once joined by my detective.

"'Has the letter been taken?' he eagerly inquired.

"I nodded.

"His brows wrinkled and he looked both troubled and perplexed.

"'I don't understand it,' he remarked. 'I've seen every one who has
gone into that room since you left it, but I do not know any more than
before who took the letter. You see,' he continued, as I looked at him
sharply, 'I had to remain out here. If I had gone even into the large
room, the Bible would not have been disturbed, nor the letter either.
So, in the hope of knowing the rogue at sight, I strolled about this
hall, and kept my eye constantly on that door, but--'

"He looked embarrassed, and stoppe