And the description of this other Helen, who had passed as the wife of Demas Lorton, suited her in every particular! From the detective’s standpoint the sequence was plain. Helen Lorton and Helen Doane were apparently one and the same person. The girl who played so innocent, and who had taken the stand of not wishing to remain and claim her place as Mr. Field’s daughter, for fear that somebody might think her claim a fraudulent one, was merely a very clever actress, and a decidedly dangerous woman, who ought to be shut up as speedily as possible for the welfare of the community at large. Thanking Chick for his information, Nick left his office much pleased with the result of his investigations thus far. His reflections ran in this channel: “It is a fortunate thing that Barnes happened to remember Lorton’s name, as it gave me possession of a most valuable clew. As to Lorton’s being out of the city I think it is all bosh! Of course, he would try to keep shady if he was working a game, so it is rather to be expected than otherwise that even his boon companions should not know that he was here. I consider it dead sure that Lorton has a hand in this mysterious affair, and I must try to-night to locate him in some of his old haunts.” On his way uptown to the house where this mystery had been evolved, he went over what he had discovered, in doing which he was constantly seeking for some new light in which to view what he had learned thus far. He mused thus: “The part Miss Doane is playing in the game would appear to indicate that somebody who is familiar with Mr. Field’s family history was seeking to play upon it to gain possession of his property. Knowing that he could not be deceived into accepting this girl as his daughter, it was decided that he should die, leaving behind him the apparently good evidence of this letter, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have accomplished the result aimed at. In carrying out this scheme Mr. Field would, however, have been killed, and his body left behind to establish the fact of his death, for they must know that as long as there is any uncertainty about the matter they would be kept out of possession of the property. This feature of the case puzzles me sadly, and the fact of the disappearance of the body almost upsets the theory, since I cannot but know that villains never take any steps to interfere with their plans. “Yet no other reasonable conclusion is left me in face of the letter, and the girl’s turning up so promptly the morning after he is no longer able to deny her claim to kinship.