, and opening upon a
court, the other in the rear, overlooking the yards of the houses on the
next street. She went to the front window, which was raised only a few
inches, and gazed out.

Below her stretched the wide court, flanked on one hand by the side of
the apartment building, on the other by the blank wall of an adjoining
house. The latter was some ten feet from where she stood, and _there
were no windows in it_! She turned to the window at the other side of
the room.

Here a fire escape led down to an alley at the rear of the building.
Could it have been in this way that the letter had been delivered? The
thing seemed impossible. Not only was the window closed, but she knew
that the ladders did not reach all the way to the ground, the last
section being pulled up, to be dropped only in case of fire. With a
mystified look she returned to the center of the room.

The letter grinned at her from the dresser, on which she had left it.
Ruth must never hear of the matter, she knew. Taking it up, she placed
it in the bosom of her dress along with the one which had arrived
earlier in the day. Then she sat down to decide what she had best do
next.

To trifle with so dangerous a situation was no longer to be thought of.
One message, the first, might have been a foolish joke. The second
proved that the danger threatening her daughter was real, imminent.

At first she thought of placing the matter in the hands of the postal
authorities, but would they, she wondered, concern themselves with
threats delivered in other ways than by mail? This second message had
not come through any such channels. In desperation she put on her hat,
placed the two letters in her handbag and set out to seek the advice of
one of her oldest and best friends.

Her purpose took her to a private banking house in Broad Street, upon
the wide entrance doors of which was inscribed the name John Stapleton &
Co. She asked to see Mr. Stapleton. John Stapleton was a man of wealth
and influence in the financial world, and Mrs. Morton's husband had at
one time been one of his most trusted employees. Now that Ruth had
become to some extent a capitalist, it was to Mr. Stapleton that the
care of her savings had been entrusted. Mrs. Morton felt the utmost
confidence in both his sincerity and his judgment.

Mr. Stapleton received her almost at once, in his simply yet richly
furnished private office, and rising from his huge flat-topped rosewood
desk, welcome