“Because I have just come from the Morgue where she lies dead.”

“No, no,” came in a low shriek from his lips, “that is not she; that is another woman, like her perhaps, but not she.”

“Would to God you were right; but the long golden braids!  Such hair as hers I never saw on anyone before.”

“Mr. Blake is right,” I broke in, for I could not endure this scene any longer.  “The woman taken out of the East river to-day has been both seen and spoken to by him and that not long since.  He should know if it is his wife.”

“And isn’t it?”

“No, a thousand times no; the girl was a perfect stranger.”

The assurance seemed to lift a leaden weight from her heart.  “O thank God,” she murmured dropping with an irresistible impulse on her knees.  Then with a sudden return of her old tremble, “But I was only to reveal her secret in case of her death!  What have I done, O what have I done!  Her only hope lay in my faithfulness.”

Mr. Blake leaning heavily on the table before him, looked in her face.

“Mrs. Daniels,” said he, “I love my wife; her hope now lies in me.”

She leaped to her feet with a joyous bound.  “You love her?  O thank God!” she again reiterated but this time in a low murmur to her self.  “Thank God!” and weeping with unrestrained joy, she drew back into a corner.

Of course after that, all that remained for us to do was to lay our heads together and consult as to the best method of renewing our search after the unhappy girl, now rendered of double interest to us by the facts with which we had just been made acquainted.  That she had been forced away from the roof that sheltered her by the power of her father and brother was of course no longer open to doubt.  To discover them, therefore, meant to recover her.  Do you wonder, then, that from the moment we left Mr. Blake’s house, the capture of that brace of thieves became the leading purpose of our two lives?

CHAPTER XV

A CONFAB

Next morning Mr. Gryce and I met in serious consultation.  How, and in what direction should we extend the inquiries necessary to a discovery of these Schoenmakers?

“I advise a thorough overhauling of the German quarter,” said my superior.  “Schmidt, and Rosenthal will help us and the result ought to be satisfactory.”

But I shook my head at this.  “I don’t believe,” said I, “that they will hide among their own people.  You must remember they are not alone, but have with them a young woman of a somewhat distinguished appearance, whose presence in a crowded district, like that, would be sure to awaken gossip; something which above all else they must want to avoid.”

“That is true; the Germans are a dreadful race for gossip.”

“If they dared to ill-dress her or ill-treat her, it would be different.  But she is a valuable piece of property to them you see, a choice lot of goods which it is for their interest to preserve in first-class condition till the day comes for its disposal.  For I presume you have no doubt that it is for the purpose of extorting money from Mr. Blake that they have carried off his young wife.”