"We heard a scream. When we opened the door you
were lying there. No one was around except two policemen who came
down from the third floor at that moment, having also heard your
cry."

After this simple statement of the situation, Marsh paused, waiting
for the girl to go on. He felt that in her dazed and weakened
condition questions would still further bewilder her, might even
cause a revulsion that would delay or prevent their getting
information that would prove of inestimable value.

The girl paused, as if to collect her thoughts, and passed her hand
before her eyes with a motion similar to sweeping aside a curtain.
Then she spoke.

"I went to the hairdresser's in the block below. Returning, I
stopped to take a letter out of the mail box and then started up the
stairs to my apartment." At this point she passed her hand over her
hair and smiled as she realized its disheveled appearance now. "As I
turned up the flight to this floor, I saw a man crouched down before
the door of this apartment. He did not hear me until I reached the
top of the stairs. Then he jumped up, and seeing me, tried to push
by. Remembering the burglary, or whatever it was, upstairs, I knew I
should try to stop him. So I seized his coat and we started to
struggle. Instantly I saw him draw back his arm, then I felt the
blow. I remember nothing of what happened from that moment until I
awoke just now on this davenport."

Marsh sat up and clenched his hands. "If I knew what the fellow
looked like I would thrash him the next time I saw him," he
threatened, hoping thus to draw out the description he wanted.

"Oh, I can describe him--at least in a general way. He was short,
not much over five feet, and quite thin. His face had a peaked look.
While we struggled his hat fell off and I saw that he was almost
bald. His nose was large, and taken with his thin face and rather
large bright eyes, it seems to me now that he looked just like an
eagle."

"Had you ever seen him before?" Morgan asked.

"Never," she answered, and the positive note in her voice could not
be mistaken.

"I will send your description to all the stations," said Morgan. "We
will try to get that fellow."

Morgan went to the telephone and called the Detective Bureau. He
gave the necessary directions, and as he returned to his chair,
remarked, "In an hour or two this won't be a safe town for that
fellow."

"You are the detective who came to see me!" exclaimed the girl.
"Perha