thought came to her. Suppose the woman was to make her
escape, coming down in one of the elevators, while she and the clerk
were going up in another. There had been ample time, she knew, for her
to have murdered Ruth, were that her plan, and have already left the
room.

"Wait just a moment," she cried to the clerk, who had said a few words
to one of his assistants and was leaving the desk to join her. "I must
speak to my cabman, but I'll be back in a moment." She dashed through
the entrance doors and hurried to the point where Leary sat at his
steering wheel.

"Wait here," she whispered to him, "until I come back, unless the woman
we have been following comes out. If she does come out, and drive away,
follow her, and find out where she goes. Then telephone me here. I will
leave my name at the desk, and wait until I hear from you."

Leary nodded, and Grace quickly re-entered the lobby and joined the
waiting clerk.

"Instruct your telephone operators," she said to him, "to let me know,
in case anyone calls up Mrs. Duvall."

The clerk gave the necessary instructions, and the two then entered one
of the elevators and quickly made their way to the seventh floor, upon
which Mrs. Morton's apartment was located.

There was no one in the corridor when they left the elevator, and the
clerk, who knew the location of the suite, hastened to it at once.

They reached the door. Grace was conscious of a feeling of apprehension,
a sense of impending disaster. Her heart pounded violently as she waited
for the answer to the clerk's knocks. She waited in vain. Only silence,
grim, terrible, rewarded his efforts.

"Something _has_ happened," Grace whispered, as the clerk again rapped
upon the door, this time more loudly than before.

Again there was no reply, no evidence of the presence of anyone in the
girl's rooms.

"Open the door!" Grace cried. "Something terrible must have occurred!"

The clerk took the pass key with which he had provided himself, and
inserted it in the lock. A moment later the door swung open, and the two
of them entered the room.

It was in total darkness. Grace clutched at her heart, fearing what she
believed the switching on of the lights would reveal. The clerk, without
loss of time, pressed the push button near the door. The room was at
once flooded with light.

Grace glanced about, then gave a momentary sigh of relief. The room, the
small parlor of the suite, was quite vacant. At its further end th