which I at the instant saw to be assumed for the purpose of delay and imposing on me a prearranged address, which, however, I accepted with apparent simplicity and good faith.  My telegrams were of course to be in cipher, and this was so secure from all attempts at deciphering that I had no anxiety about the Irish chiefs solving it.  I have heard in later times that they boasted of having copies of all my messages (which is probable) and having read them, but this was impossible, as not only was the cipher extremely difficult to any one even who had the key, but the key was changed every day by a scheme arranged before I left London and known only by the office and myself.  My cipher, if used according to the directions, is absolutely insoluble by any patience or experience, and the Fenian boast that they read it was pure “blague.”  I knew that they had the telegraph in their hands and made my arrangements accordingly.  But the secret power of the organization surprised me, though I knew very well the political influence at election time which the rottenness of our politics gave them.

I obtained from a leading New York merchant a letter of introduction to a well-known private detective whom, as a fellow-countryman, I succeeded in so far interesting in my work that I had no difficulty in getting from him all the useful information that he possessed; but to my request for practical assistance he replied that half of the detectives in his own employment were Irish, and that the knowledge that he had taken part in any such undertaking as mine would lead to their desertion and the paralysis of his own service.  But he put me in the way of getting the services of a most competent detective who worked on his own hook, and from whom I obtained all that I needed.  He succeeded in tracing Sheridan to a ranch in Nevada, and ascertained that he had the Parnell letter which we wanted, but that he did not carry it with him, for fear of being robbed of it, and that he was watched so closely by the agents of the Fenian organization that, as my mission was suspected, my connection with the “Times” being known to all the world, any attempt on my part to enter into personal relations with him would be dangerous to me personally, and if I did succeed in purchasing the desired document from him, I should be killed, if necessary, to get it from me.  Sheridan was willing to sell it, but he considered his life to be in such danger if it were known that he had done so, that he demanded a price which would, in the event of his being assassinated, put his wife at ease for the rest of her life.  Later he would have accepted a much smaller price, and it is said that a prominent English Radical, to put the matter out of the possibility of renewal of the accusation, subsequently purchased it.