Simple as the circumstance was it impressed me, and I stood still and waited.
My eyes wandered from the shadow for an instant, and when my eyes sought the spot where it had been, it was gone.
I sprang to the corner.
The criminal whom I had been following was out of sight, and the person who had cast that shadow was nowhere visible.
And yet I had heard no footsteps, and the time anyhow was too brief for the person to have gone more than a dozen feet.
I was deeply puzzled.
Soon after I turned my steps toward home, for I was balked for the present, whatever else might be the case. I remember just before leaving the spot that I muttered, rather loud, perhaps:
"Where did that shadow disappear to so suddenly?"
The next day these words were recalled to my mind when a note was handed to me, and I had opened it.
"The bonds are hidden under the dock at the foot of —— street. The person who stole them will recover them to-night. Capture him. Claim the reward; keep half, and be ready to give the other half at an instant's demand to
Shadow."