then to comply with my request: and if I
do not receive a line from you, together with the above sum, before the
22d of this month, I shall wait upon you with an assistant. I have said
enough to convince you of my knowledge, and merely inform you that you
can, when you answer, be as brief as possible.

"Direct yours to

"CHARLES GRANT, Jr., of Prospect, Maine."

This letter was an unintelligible enigma to Captain Knapp; he knew no
man of the name of Charles Grant, Jr., and had no acquaintance at
Belfast, a town in Maine, two hundred miles distant from Salem. After
poring over it in vain, he handed it to his son, Nathaniel Phippen
Knapp, a young lawyer; to him also the letter was an inexplicable
riddle. The receiving of such a _threatening_ letter, at a time when so
many felt insecure, and were apprehensive of danger, demanded their
attention. Captain Knapp and his son Phippen, therefore, concluded to
ride to Wenham, seven miles distant, and show the letter to Captain
Knapp's other two sons, Joseph J. Knapp, Jr. and John Francis Knapp, who
were then residing at Wenham with Mrs. Beckford, the niece and late
house-keeper of Mr. White, and the mother of the wife of J.J. Knapp, Jr.
The latter perused the letter, told his father it "contained a devilish
lot of trash," and requested him to hand it to the Committee of
Vigilance. Captain Knapp, on his return to Salem that evening,
accordingly delivered the letter to the chairman of the Committee.

The next day J.J. Knapp, Jr. went to Salem, and requested one of his
friends to drop into the Salem post-office the two following
pseudonymous letters.

"_May 13, 1830._

"GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE,--Hearing that you have taken
up four young men on suspicion of being concerned in the murder of Mr.
White, I think it time to inform you that Steven White came to me one
night and told me, if I would _remove_ the old gentleman, he would give
me five thousand dollars; he said he was afraid he would alter his will
if he lived any longer. I told him I would do it, but I was afeared to
go into the house, so he said he would go with me, that he would try to
get into the house in the evening and open the window, would then go
home and go to bed and meet me again about eleven. I found him, and we
both went into his chamber. I struck him on the head with a heavy piece
of lead, and then stabbed him with a dirk; he made the finishing strokes
with another. He promised to send me t