Shadow, the Mysterious Detective

by Police Captain Howard

The penmanship was "as like as two peas."

Now, then, if you have read the foregoing chapters with any interest, you can see why I was puzzled.

Was Nellie Millbank the mysterious little detective?

As I said, provided your interest has been deep enough, you know that I had strong reasons, and many of them, for supposing Shadow to be none other than young Mat Morris.

Let us recount some reasons.

I had taxed Shadow with being Mat Morris, and he had not denied it.

Then, I had paid Shadow five hundred dollars, and had afterwards seen the very bills themselves in the hands of Mat's mother.

This last circumstance was of itself strong evidence that Mat and Shadow were one and the same person.

Then there was the manner Shadow had of carrying himself—Mat Morris' style exactly.

A person's manner of bearing himself, and his mode of walking, and the use of his hands and head when speaking, are things that no disguise can hide.