"No. Ruth always keeps it raised during the night, but usually closes it
while dressing."

Duvall went to the window, and opened it. It was well balanced and moved
easily.

"Anyone coming up by way of the fire escape could, of course, have
raised the window from the outside, and closed it again after leaving
the room," he said, more to himself than to Mrs. Morton. Then he got out
on the fire escape and made a careful examination of its surface.

"When was this ironwork painted?" he asked Mrs. Morton, through the
window.

"About ten days ago."

"H--m." Duvall examined the newly painted iron surface with rather a
blank expression. That anyone had walked upon it since it had received
its newly applied coat was, he felt, out of the question. The paint was
so new, so shiny, so yielding in its fresh glossiness that, even
treading as lightly as he could, the marks of his shoes were plainly
visible. He leaned over and pressed the palm of his hand upon the grated
iron floor. The pressure of his hand was sufficient to dull the freshly
painted surface. It seemed impossible that anyone, even in bare or
stockinged feet, could have been upon the fire escape, without having
left tell-tale marks upon it. He re-entered the room, and turned his
attention to the other window.

Here the opportunities for entrance seemed even more unfavorable. The
window was situated on the fourth floor. There was still another floor
above, with a window similarly located. Anyone might, of course, have
been lowered from this window above, to the sill of the one at which he
now stood, and entered the room in that way. He examined with care the
white woodwork of the window sill, also freshly painted. It showed no
marks. This, of course, was not conclusive. He determined to investigate
the occupants of the apartment on the top floor.

The wall of the brownstone dwelling house next door, which formed the
east side of the narrow court, was of brick, covered with ivy. There
were no windows in it whatever. Apparently it had once adjoined the wall
of a similar house, where the apartment building now stood, and when the
second house had been torn down to make way for the new building, the
partition wall had remained as originally built, without windows.

Duvall examined this house next door with a great deal of interest. It
was four stories high, with an attic, and rose to almost the same height
as the fifth floor of the apartment house, owing, no doubt