“My name is Everman,” answered the detective frankly.  “I only arrived in Woodford yesterday, and expected to meet a friend whose family resides here; but I regret to say I have been disappointed.”

“May I ask who you were waiting to meet?”

This was the very question the detective most desired to be asked, and he answered at once.

“Yes.  I expected to meet Newton Edwards here, and I have some letters for him from his employer, which he ought to receive.”

At the mention of the name, Nelson started in astonishment, and then gave vent to a long, low whistle.

“I am afraid you won’t find him here,” he said at last.

“Afraid, Mr. Nelson!  Why, what’s the matter?” quickly inquired the detective.

“Well, sir, I am afraid your friend has turned rascal, and has run away.”

“What do you mean?” sharply asked Everman.  “Surely, you have no reference to my friend, Newton Edwards?”

“Yes, I mean him exactly.  He is a damned thief, that’s what he is; and he has broken his wife’s heart!”

This was enough for Everman; and in a short time he had learned all that the honest carpenter could tell him.  On the evening before, it appeared, Mrs. Edwards had received a letter from her husband, the contents of which had made her frantic with grief, and to-day she was unable to leave her bed.  In this letter he had informed her that he had been connected with the robbery of the bank at Geneva, and that he had succeeded in eluding all pursuit, and was now hiding in some obscure place in the state of New York.

“This is all I know about it,” added Nelson, “and I suppose I ought not to tell this; but when a man turns out a damned rogue like that, honest people cannot afford to shield or uphold him in his rascality.”

“That’s my opinion, exactly,” rejoined the detective, “and I am sorry, indeed, for Edwards’ wife, although I am free to confess that I have no further sympathy for him.”

“I ought not to have told you this,” said Nelson, with some compunctions of conscience at his garrulity.  “And if my wife was to hear that I had done so, she would take my head off.”

“Well, she won’t hear of it from me, I can assure you, and I am too much disappointed in my friend to speak of it unnecessarily to any one.”

Their conversation was continued a few minutes longer, and then Nelson, promising to see my operative again, took his leave.

Here was a revelation, which amounted to a direct confirmation of our suspicion regarding Edwards, and was convincing testimony of the fact that he was hiding from the officers of the law.  The information about his location, while indefinite, was a surety of the fact that he had not gone west, according to his previous arrangement, and that he must be looked for in the state of New York.