The question then arose, where was she, and if found, how was she to be recovered, if at all? Mr. Smith found in the person of Mr. T. A. Vestal of Selma, Alabama, one of the shrewdest detectives in the country, and Vestal at once commenced operations, with the assistance of two other detectives, and ultimately gained intelligence of her in the city of Philadelphia, though not before the lapse of some fifteen or eighteen months. Vestal heard from a negro barber, whose confidence he had obtained, that about a year ago a child answering her description had been in the city, and for a time had been secreted in a cellar on Pine Street. The cellar was found, and, through the influence of bribes, it was ascertained from an old woman still living in a portion of the house to which the cellar belonged that the child had been carried to New York. The next day Mr. Vestal started for that city to prosecute his search, and remained there five weeks. Every effort was made, but no further intelligence of her could be learned. If any one knew of her or had seen her there, their mouths were sealed to the influence of money or persuasion. Mr. Vestal began almost to despair, yet determined not to yield his cherished object. He had every reason to believe she was alive, for when taken from New Orleans she was in excellent health. The papers had been watched closely by him, and no account of the death of any one answering her description had been noticed, which certainly would have been the case had she died. From New York he proceeded to Boston; from thence to Philadelphia, and ultimately to Newark, New Jersey. There, for the first time, he got definite information of her. He learned from a man then keeping a drinking house that at one time, when engaged as a cabman in the city of New York, he had been hired to convey a girl answering her description to a sailing vessel, the name of which he did not remember, bound for and ready to sail for Liverpool; that he had seen the vessel depart, and knew the child was aboard of her when she sailed. Acting on this valuable information, Mr. Vestal immediately returned to North Carolina and urged on Mr. Smith the necessity of following her. Mr. Smith determined to make the attempt, and accordingly prepared for the journey. Accompanied by the mother of Christine Millie, he reached New York, took the steamship Atlantic, and after a pleasant voyage reached Liverpool. There they learned that the child had been on exhibition in that city; also in London, Leeds and other places.