CHAPTER XXI.
A HELPLESS OLD WOMAN.
In Kansas City was arrested a suspicious-looking man, who, upon being taken to jail, confessed that his name was Dare Kittymunks and owned that he had killed old man Colton.

Thus was ended the search for the murderer, the newspapers said, and the vigilance of the Kansas City police was praised.

But it soon transpired that the prisoner had been a street preacher in Topeka at the time when the murder was committed, that he had on that day created a sensation by announcing himself John the Baptist and swearing that all other Johns the Baptist were base impostors.

The fellow was taken to an asylum for the insane, and the search for Dave Kittymunks was resumed.
Old Mrs.Colton had not moved a muscle since the night of the murder.
She lay looking straight at the ceiling, and in her eyes was an expression that seemed constantly to repeat, "My body is dead, but my mind is alive." Once every week the pastor of her church came to see her.

He was an old man, threatened with palsy, and had long ago ceased to find pleasure in the appetites and vanities of this life.