“The simple fact that when I last saw him he was wearing my clothes, and they were of a peculiar shade of brown,” Klein said. The chief frowned, but nodded for Klein to proceed. “An hour or two previous to my discovery I met a friend who declared he had seen a man entering the Albany Hotel wearing my suit. He was so positive of it that I came to the conclusion that this man was after the stock engagement sought by Delmar, and that he had assaulted my friend and changed clothes with him for the identical reason I had in changing clothes with Delmar. Realizing my own position in the matter, and the strong circumstantial evidence against me, I determined to take this clew, slight as it was, but the only one, apparently, and run it to earth. To clear myself of suspicion I had to apprehend the real criminal. “Mr. Tod”--indicating the reporter--“is a representative of the New York _News_, and has been commissioned by his paper to find me. I outwitted him in New York, but he managed to trace me aboard the Fall River boat, and was on the point of having me arrested when this same obliging gentleman, Mr. Jarge, interfered and prevented it. “I continued on to Fall River, after parting from Jarge at Newport, and from there traveled to Hudson, where the stock company in question is located. Here, as a supernumerary, I started my quest. I soon learned that the manager had signed three men that night in New York--Metcalfe, Tanner, and Dodge. So this was a more difficult problem for me to solve. I had to discover which of the three men was the right one, and at the same time keep my intentions secret. By substituting a photograph of my friend, Delmar, for another picture used in one of the scenes, I eliminated Dodge, and narrowed the suspicion down to Metcalfe and Tanner, both of whom had shown much concern over the photograph, and later demanded its removal from the frame. “One night, in my dressing room, Tanner dropped a newspaper clipping, which I found and read, and which I thoughtlessly wrapped about a stick of grease paint, and placed in my make-up box, little thinking it would prove to be of any consequence. Last Saturday night, at a dance given in this house, Miss Lydecker’s brooch was stolen. At first the case appeared to be a most puzzling one, since none of the men had left the room, and all of them readily submitted to a search. After I arrived home that same night I recollected that just before the brooch was missed, Tanner had opened a window. I saw instantly that in this way the brooch had been dropped to a confederate below. I also remembered that earlier in the evening Miss Lydecker had seen a man skulking along in the shadow of the hedge. I made a search, but found nothing. This man Jarge evidently had been Tanner’s confederate.” “Why did you not inform me of this?” broke from Mr. Lydecker, who was greatly agitated over the explanation.