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 I have refrained from disclosing the name of the Seattle hotel for the reason that there is no desire on my part to compromise those from whom I afterward received a copy of the Porter letter.

Returning to Chicago, I wrote to friends in Seattle, requesting them to be on the lookout for a letter which would reach a certain hotel addressed to Mrs. Emma Porter, and upon its arrival, to secure it and send it to my Chicago address. In reply I was advised that the letter had come to hand, but could not be obtained. I thereupon wired instructions to get the letter at whatever cost, and was later notified that it had been forwarded in accordance with directions.

In due time I received a copy of the Porter letter, accompanied with the explanation that the original could not be secured for any length of time without detection, and hoping that the copy would suffice. It did, as it proved to my entire satisfaction that its contents were in the nature of a decoy for the purpose of locating Mrs. Watson, corroborating what McKinley and myself had suspected all along.

As to my friend Gallagher, alias Graham, the detective, he turned up missing when I arrived in Chicago from Milwaukee the second time, hence the presumption is that he followed the Porter letter on its mission to Seattle. Had it not been for the fact that I met him personally in Chicago at a later date, I should imagine that he was still engaged in keeping a watchful eye on the important missive through the medium of which he expected to make a really sensational capture.

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