15. RECOVERING THE DIAMOND RING, 267 16. THE OLD KNICKERBOCKER IN THE DETECTIVE'S OFFICE, 279 17. DISCOVERING THE "SPIRITS" AT NO. 89 ---- STREET, NEW YORK, 291 18. "KETCH HIM AND HOULD HIM!"--WILLIAMS' ARREST, 355 19. THE WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING, 383 20. BREAK-DOWN ON LITCHFIELD HILL, 399 21. THE CEREMONY DEFEATED, 409 22. DR. HUDSON'S STRATAGEM WITH THE HIGHWAYMEN, 433 23. THE MISSOURI LAWYER OUTWITTED, 489 24. A RASH COURTSHIP, 521 25. FEARFUL DREAM OF OLD MR. BROOKS, 549 26. RESCUE OF NELLIE WILSON, 577 27. RESCUE OF THE WILL, 585 28. THE TWO SISTERS COURTING COL. NOVENA IN HIS LIBRARY, 595 29. THE "HONEST" COUNTERFEIT MONEY SPECULATOR, 639 30. CATCHING A FLAT, 659 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION. -------------- Deeming that the public would be deeply interested to know, indeed had a right to know, something more of the author of the following work than gleams through the series of entertaining, instructive, and in many respects unparalleled articles which constitute "Knots Untied," we applied to him for his Autobiography, in details covering other portions of, and facts in his life, than are revealed in the wonderful experiences of his professional career, as brought to light in these articles. But we were met by a reply, characteristic of most men of deeds rather than of words, that it would be wholly against his taste to furnish his own personal history: he was in 'no wise desirous to vaunt himself,' he said; 'he had not sought,' he continued, by the articles in question, to illustrate himself, or to play the part of a hero in any measure, but merely to contribute to the current literature and the history of the times a narration of sundry interesting facts, which, in their hidden and secret nature, are usually withheld from the general public.