"You do not bore me, Mr. Marten," returned Forrester. "On the contrary, I am deeply interested; especially because of what happened in the present case." "Well, enough of that," said Marten. "Now for the story I came here to tell. "Unlike police detectives, I do not immediately ascribe a crime to the lower criminal classes. I _know_ that criminal tendencies extend upward through every stratum of society. My first effort, therefore, is to place the possible social standing of the criminal, and thus learn approximately _where_ to look for him. "In the present instance I took all the available data and analyzed the situation. Two points impressed me at once. One, that for approximately a year not a single clue had been discovered. Second, the enormous amount of money which had been extorted. This had reached the sum of nearly a quarter of a million dollars." "I considered those points," said Forrester, "but they gave me no clue." "Ah, because you lacked two things," returned Marten. "Experience and the outside viewpoint. Now, in analyzing the first point, I seriously doubted the existence of a _group_ of men as implied by the name 'Friends of the Poor.’ When a gang is operating it is difficult to hold the men together. Something slips sooner or later, just as in the case of those West Side Italians who were caught by the police. I became convinced that we had to deal _with one man only_. I was even more convinced of this when I considered the amount of money involved. To have attempted to split so vast an amount in an equitable way among a number of ordinary criminals would eventually have led to dissensions and exposure. "Then, in considering this second point by itself, I saw that we had to deal with no ordinary criminal. It was a vast sum, and the ordinary criminal type does not think in such large figures. The result of this analysis gave me two clues: first, that we probably had to deal with not more than one man; and second, that this man was a much higher type than the common malefactor. "Another point to consider was the manner of death of those victims who failed to make their payments. These men were all asphyxiated. I did not know the exact method at the time, as I know it now, but the principle remained the same. To accomplish this asphyxiation, I reasoned that the victim must be lured to some place for the purpose. If only one man were engaged in the work, it was obvious that he was not only acquainted with the victims’ habits, but probably sufficiently well acquainted with the victims themselves to possess their confidence. All this pointed to a man of high social position.