ed to the porch and sat
there reading the letter over and over and her brain began to
evolve ideas. She had been wondering how she could get at Mr.
Ryder and here he was actually asking her to call on him.
Evidently he had not the slightest idea of her identity, for he
had been able to reach her only through her publishers and no
doubt he had exhausted every other means of discovering her
address. The more she pondered over it the more she began to see
in this invitation a way of helping her father. Yes, she would go
and beard the lion in his den, but she would not go to his office.
She would accept the invitation only on condition that the
interview took place in the Ryder mansion where undoubtedly the
letters would be found. She decided to act immediately. No time
was to be lost, so she procured a sheet of paper and an envelope
and wrote as follows:

MR. JOHN BURKETT RYDER,

_Dear Sir._--I do not call upon gentlemen at their
business office.
Yours, etc.,
SHIRLEY GREEN.

Her letter was abrupt and at first glance seemed hardly calculated
to bring about what she wanted--an invitation to call at the Ryder
home, but she was shrewd enough to see that if Ryder wrote to her
at all it was because he was most anxious to see her and her
abruptness would not deter him from trying again. On the contrary,
the very unusualness of anyone thus dictating to him would make
him more than ever desirous of making her acquaintance. So Shirley
mailed the letter and awaited with confidence for Ryder's reply.
So certain was she that one would come that she at once began to
form her plan of action. She would leave Massapequa at once, and
her whereabouts must remain a secret even from her own family. As
she intended to go to the Ryder house in the assumed character of
Shirley Green, it would never do to run the risk of being followed
home by a Ryder detective to the Rossmore cottage. She would
confide in one person only--Judge Stott. He would know where she
was and would be in constant communication with her. But,
otherwise, she must be alone to conduct the campaign as she judged
fit. She would go at once to New York and take rooms in a boarding
house where she would be known as Shirley Green. As for funds to
meet her expenses, she had her diamonds, and would they not be
filling a more useful purpose if sold to defray the cost of saving
her father than in mere pers