A brief early American detective novella written in 1883 by Anna Katharine Green that tells the story of a detective who arrives in a small town in Massachusetts in an attempt to investigate counterfeiters possibly connected to a series of mysterious letters addressed only to X Y Z. While he is questioning the postmaster, he learns of the Benson family and their super secretive lifestyle.
The detective feels there is something amiss and switches his investigation to them the letters and counterfeiting is dropped.