on, pale as death, appeared.

With wide open eyes staring straight ahead, she half stepped, half fell
through the doorway, her slender figure clothed only in her night dress.
"Ruth," Mrs. Morton screamed, as she caught sight of her daughter.

The girl tried to say something, but her tongue failed her. Then, with a
faint moan, she lurched forward and fell limply into her mother's arms.

PART II

CHAPTER VII

When Duvall, Mr. Baker, of the motion picture company, and Mrs. Morton
rushed down the hallway of the latter's apartment in response to the
screams from Ruth's bedroom, they were one and all convinced that the
girl had suffered some terrible injury--that the mysterious threats to
destroy her beauty which had been made during the past few days had been
converted into some frightful reality.

One glance at the girl's white face as she fell fainting into her
mother's arms told the detective that their fears had been, to that
extent at least, groundless. The girl's lovely features, although drawn
and contorted by fear, showed no signs of the disfigurement they feared.

Leaving the girl to her mother's care, Duvall, closely followed by
Baker, dashed into the bedroom, and at once switched on the lights. The
place, to the intense surprise of both, presented a picture of perfect
quiet and order. The bed clothing was slightly disarranged, but this of
course was but natural, since Ruth had sprung up under the influence of
some terrible fear, and rushed from the room. Everything else seemed in
its place.

Duvall's first act was to examine the window. The one fronting on the
fire escape was closed and tightly fastened. It was perfectly clear that
no one had entered the room in that way.

The other window, facing on the court, was raised a few inches, just as
Mrs. Morton had left it half an hour before. Duvall turned to his
companion with a puzzled frown.

"I had supposed, Mr. Baker," he said, "that someone had entered this
room, and frightened Miss Morton while she was asleep, but that is
impossible. The windows have not been disturbed."

Baker glanced at the one which faced the court.

"That one may have been," he said, indicating it with a nod. "Someone
may have come in that way, raising the window to effect an entrance, and
lowering it again after leaving."

"I admit that what you say would be possible, were there any way in
which the window might be reached from outside," Duvall replied, "but if