never he is at home, I shall be at my post of
observation; whenever he goes out, I shall be after him. By employing
these means of watching him, I believe I may look forward to
the discovery of his secret--if he knows anything about the lost
bank-notes--as to a dead certainty.

What you may think of my plan of observation I cannot undertake to
say. It appears to me to unite the invaluable merits of boldness
and simplicity. Fortified by this conviction, I close the present
communication with feelings of the most sanguine description in regard
to the future, and remain your obedient servant,

MATTHEW SHARPIN.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

7th July.

SIR--As you have not honored me with any answer to my last
communication, I assume that, in spite of your prejudices against me, it
has produced the favorable impression on your mind which I ventured
to anticipate. Gratified and encouraged beyond measure by the token of
approval which your eloquent silence conveys to me, I proceed to report
the progress that has been made in the course of the last twenty-four
hours.

I am now comfortably established next door to Mr. Jay, and I am
delighted to say that I have two holes in the partition instead of one.
My natural sense of humor has led me into the pardonable extravagance
of giving them both appropriate names. One I call my peep-hole, and the
other my pipe-hole. The name of the first explains itself; the name of
the second refers to a small tin pipe or tube inserted in the hole,
and twisted so that the mouth of it comes close to my ear while I am
standing at my post of observation. Thus, while I am looking at Mr. Jay
through my peep-hole, I can hear every word that may be spoken in his
room through my pipe-hole.

Perfect candor--a virtue which I have possessed from my
childhood--compels me to acknowledge, before I go any further, that
the ingenious notion of adding a pipe-hole to my proposed peep-hole
originated with Mrs. Yatman. This lady--a most intelligent and
accomplished person, simple, and yet distinguished in her manners, has
entered into all my little plans with an enthusiasm and intelligence
which I cannot too highly praise. Mr. Yatman is so cast down by his loss
that he is quite incapable of affording me any assistance. Mrs. Yatman,
who is evidently most tenderly attached to him, feels her husband's
sad condition of mind even more acutely than she feels the loss of the
money, and is mainly stimulated to exert