CHAPTER VIII.
_My Agency is Employed_--_The work of Detection begun._ The events attendant upon the investigation and the consequent imprisonment of Bucholz had consumed much time.

The new year had dawned; January had passed away and the second month of the year had nearly run its course before the circumstances heretofore narrated had reached the position in which they now stood.
The ingenuity and resources of the officers at South Norwalk had been fully exerted, and no result further than that already mentioned had been achieved.

The evidence against Bucholz, although circumstantially telling against him, was not of sufficient weight or directness to warrant a conviction upon the charge preferred against him.

He had employed eminent legal counsel, and their hopeful views of the case had communicated themselves to the mercurial temperament of the prisoner, and visions of a full and entire acquittal from the grave charge under which he was laboring, thronged his brain.
The violence of his grief had abated; his despair had been dissipated by the sunshine of a fondly-cherished hopefulness, and his manner became cheerful and contented.
It was at this time that the services of my agency were called into requisition, and the process of the detection of the real criminal was begun.
Upon arriving at my agency in New York City one morning in the latter part of February, Mr.George H.Bangs, my General Superintendent, was waited upon by a representative of the German Consul-General, who was the bearer of a letter from the Consulate, containing a short account of the murder of Henry Schulte, and placing the matter fully in my hands for the discovery of the following facts: I.Who is the murderer?
II.

Where is the money which is supposed to have been upon the person of Henry Schulte at the time of his death?
Up to this time no information of the particulars of this case had reached my agency, and, except for casual newspaper reports, nothing was known of the affair, nor of the connection which the German Consul had with the matter.
At the interview which followed, however, such information as was known to that officer, who courteously communicated it, was obtained, and my identification with the case began.
It became necessary at the outset that the support of the State's Attorney should be secured, as without that nothing could be successfully accomplished, and an interview was had with Mr.
Olmstead, which resulted in his entire and cordial indorsement of our employment.
The difficulties in the way of successful operation beset us at the commencement, and were apparent to the minds of all.