stairs in the
elevator, and repaired to a booth in the lobby. One of the maids had
been left to watch over Ruth.

The message was from Leary, as Grace had anticipated.

"Is this you, Mrs. Duvall?" the cabman asked.

"Yes. What have you discovered?"

"The lady got into her cab a little while after you left me, and drove
away. I followed, as you told me to do. She drove to an apartment on
96th Street, left her taxicab, and entered. The cab drove away. I'm
waiting across the street, in a drug store. The apartment is on the
corner, 96th Street and Columbus Avenue. Shall I stay here?"

"Yes. Wait until I come." Grace left the booth, and hunting up the
clerk, told him that she was obliged to go out at once.

"Mrs. Morton should be back very soon," she said. "One of the maids is
sitting with Miss Ruth. Hadn't you better stay with her, as well?"

The clerk nodded, then saw the doctor coming through the lobby.

"Here's Dr. Benson," he said. "I'll send him up. The young lady will be
quite safe, until her mother comes."

Grace bowed to the doctor, then hurried out of the hotel, and jumping
into a taxi, ordered the driver to take her to Columbus Avenue and 96th
Street. She felt overjoyed, to know that the woman Duvall had been
seeking had at last been run to earth. She should, Grace determined, not
escape a second time.

At 96th Street, she found Leary, impatiently waiting for her in the
doorway of the corner drug store from which he had telephoned. He saw
her as soon as she left the cab and, tipping his cap, came forward and
joined her.

"She's in there yet, Miss," he whispered, jerking his thumb toward the
building on the opposite corner.

Grace glanced in the direction indicated. A somewhat dingy-looking
apartment house stood upon the corner; its lower floor occupied by a
florist's shop. The entrance was on 96th Street. Leaving Leary on the
opposite corner, she crossed the street and entered the vestibule of the
building.

The mail boxes on either side contained five names each, indicating that
there were ten apartments in the building. Grace looked over the
addresses in them carefully, but none of them meant anything to her.
None was at all familiar. The name on the torn card had been Ford, but
there was no such name among those before her. How was she to tell to
which apartment the woman had gone? The situation presented an
interesting problem.

Making a list of the names upon a visiting card, Grace determine