CHAPTER XXVI.
_Edward Sommers as the Detective._--_A Visit to the Barn, and Part of the Money Discovered._--_The Detective makes Advances to the Counsel of the Prisoner._--_A Further Confidence of an Important Nature._ The reader is no doubt by this time fully aware of the character of Edward Sommers.

He was a detective, and in my employ.

Day by day, as his intimacy with William Bucholz had increased, I had been duly informed of the fact.

Step by step, as he had neared the point desired, I had received the information and advised the course of action.
Every night before retiring the detective would furnish me with a detailed statement of the proceedings of the day which had passed, and I was perfectly cognizant of the progress he made, and was fully competent, by reason of that knowledge, to advise and direct his future movements.
The manner of his arrest had been planned by me, and successfully carried out; the money package had been made up in my office, and the forged order was the handiwork of one of my clerks, and the ingenious manner of carrying out this matter had completely deluded his accusers, by whom the charge was made in perfect good faith.
During his occupancy of the prison he had so thoroughly won the confidence of William Bucholz that he had become almost a necessity to him.

This guilty man, hugging to himself the knowledge of his crime and his ill-gotten gains, had found the burden too heavy to bear.