at which the end of the pole, or whatever was attached
to the end of the pole, came in contact with the bed. All that is
perfectly supposable. But you can see for yourself that if a long pole
were thrust through the window, raised as the latter was but a trifle
above the level of the bed, the other end of such a pole must of
necessity have been held at approximately the same level, and the only
point outside the window from which it could have been so held is _in
the air, forty feet above the bottom of the court_! The thing is
absurd."

"There is, of course, the window of the apartment below," Baker
suggested. "Might not it have been used?"

"I thought of that," Duvall replied. "You can see for yourself that even
a tall man standing on the window sill below, would find not only his
hands, but even his head, far below the sill of this window, nor could
anyone so support themselves, without something to hold on to. But all
that is beside the question. The people in the apartment below are
friends of Mrs. Morton's, a middle-aged man and his wife, with two young
children. They are eminently respectable people, and quite above
suspicion."

"Then I give the thing up," exclaimed Baker. "Suppose we have a talk
with Miss Morton."

They found the girl lying on a couch in the library, with her mother
sitting beside her. She seemed very weak and quiet, but in full
possession of her faculties. Duvall drew up a chair, and asked her if
she felt able to tell them what had occurred.

"Yes," she replied in a faint voice, her face still showing evidences of
her fright. "I will try to tell you exactly what happened."

"I had taken some medicine to make me sleep, before I got into bed,
because I was very nervous and upset. When mother came back to fix the
windows I was already drowsy, and just remember that she turned out the
lights, and then I must have dozed.

"All of a sudden I heard a strange rasping noise, and I woke up, with
the feeling that there was someone in the room. I don't know just why I
felt so sure of that, whether it was merely a sense of someone's
presence, or the sound of someone moving about near my bed. I think,
however, that it was the latter.

"The room was dark, of course, but enough light came through the windows
to make a moving object distinguishable. I looked about, terribly
frightened, but for a moment I saw nothing. The noise I had heard at
first continued. Then without the least warning, a hand seeme