“From the moment when I appeared among you as Brooks, my work was double. I was bent upon posting myself thoroughly in regard to Jasper Lamotte, and day by day I became more interested in the career of this remarkable man.
“Step by step, I trod backward the path of his history, since his advent in W——, gathering my information from many sources.
“It would be tedious to enter into details; suffice it to say that while I worked here, two others, trained to such research, were beating up the past I was so anxious to become familiar with. And a third, across the water, was gathering up the history of John Burrill, another object of interest to me at that time.
“And now I will reverse the order in which we made our search, and, beginning where my men left off, give you, in brief, the history
