The result of my investigation was the conviction that some resident of the house, or some frequent visitor, had taken the money; so I asked Madame K. to call up the younger servant. The old one was beyond all possible suspicion; and I convinced myself that either the servant was guiltless, or that if guilty we could never prove her so, unless by chance we should find the money on her; so I had arranged, before her coming in, to be writing at a table, and while in conversation with her, of such a style that she could not possibly conceive that we had the remotest suspicion of her, I asked her, in a careless way, to hand me some writing paper out of the desk, and the bungling mode in which she managed the key of that peculiar lock convinced me that she did not take the money, unless when the door had been carelessly left open; but Madame K. was very sure that she was never guilty of such carelessness, and I was disposed to accredit her self-judgment.

I took possession of everything in the drawer, a purse, some old papers, some letters; one letter particularly attracting my attention, a corner or strip of it having been torn off. I asked Madame K. about this torn letter. She could give me no information about it. It was a business letter written to her late husband, and dated back some three years. It was written in English, but by a German friend of the late Mr. K., residing then at Cincinnati, Ohio. There was the unmistakable German form of the letters; and I know not what should have "come over" me just then, for I am not a believer in the interference of intelligent spirits, and I fear I do not believe more than is necessary of ancient or modern "inspiration," but I said to the widow,—

"Madame K., I feel as though we were going to find out, sooner or later, who took the money, and I hope we shall get the money back, too."

Of course her eyes sparkled a little with sudden hope, excited by my confident manner of speaking, but they dropped before she replied,—

"But, sir, I dare not hope so, for the disappointment, if you should not find the money, would be worse than the loss original" (for madame still transposed some of her English words according to her native idiom). "But you will be a vary excee-lent man if you do find it," added she, with a most provoking smile of encouragement.

I searched the boarders' and servants' rooms, with madame, most thoroughly, but unavailingly, and told her she must keep quiet, and wait for some circumstance to develop itself which might put us on the right track; and that, meanwhile, I would trace out the patent roof-maker in his quarters in New York.

From something which madame told me, and from the fact of seeing an old, and pretty well worn pack of marked-back playing cards, and some other indications of a sporting man, I expected to find this fellow's "work," not so much on roofs as under them. But I found he had really an ostensible business, and had an office,—a very small one,—in which he had three or four little houses, of the size of small dog kennels, the roofs of which were covered with his patent composition, and he had also some four men at work; but he did not work much. He hardly took the trouble to supervise his men's work, but charged so much a day for their time, and paid them less, living on the difference, and thus keeping up appearances, while he was trying to sell out his "right" to somebody who might be found stupid enough to give him as much as he paid for it.

I found that some of his associates were gamblers and other kinds of sporting men, and that he kept his best suit of clothes in a wardrobe at his office, and dressed more elegantly in New York than he did in Newark, where the clothes he wore were whole, neat, and good enough. This flashy dressing in New York not only suggested vanity, but some cunning, I thought, showing the man to be capable of some secrecy and diplomacy. I pursued my investigations into his character, not only in New York, but in Ohio, where he was born, and raised. He came from the beautiful town of Dayton, and his parentage, and relationship there, were highly respectable. The young man's countenance was in his favor. He looked honest and good-hearted, and I found that he dealt with his men as he agreed. But he would be a sorry fool who should trust much to appearances in a large city like New York, where the greatest scoundrels are the most fascinating men and women.

But I confess my mind oscillated considerably between suspicions of this young man's guiltiness and the inclination to believe him innocent. I found he spent considerable money, and I found, too, where he sometimes made a good deal in gambling. He was one of those unfortunate beings who enjoy good luck enough, now and then, to constantly whet their hopes, and make their severest losses only prompters to more earnest trials of the "fickle goddess."

I continued to trace him back and forth between Newark and New York, which I was enabled to do almost daily, through the kindness of a friend who resided in Newark, and came daily to New York to his business. This man talked with him about the widow's loss, for which the young roof-maker expressed great regret; said Madame K. was a fine lady, worked hard, and he wished he was able to make up her loss to her in some way.