d to clutch
at the bedclothes, and I saw above me, bending over me, a terrible dark
face, exactly like the grinning death's head on those letters I've been
getting.

"I lay perfectly still, frozen with horror, and in a moment the face had
disappeared, and then I began to scream. Right after that I sprang from
the bed and threw open the door, and found mother and Mr. Baker and
yourself standing in the hall. That is all I know."

Duvall looked at her for a moment, puzzled.

"Are you sure you really saw someone leaning over you? Might it not have
been an illusion, the result of your nervous condition?"

"No. I am certain someone was there--someone quite tall, I should say,
and with a terrible, evil face."

"It might have been a mask, of course," Duvall suggested. "Someone
wearing a mask."

"Yes. It might have been. It was too dark for me to tell, of course. But
I remember the eyes, for I saw them distinctly. They were only a few
inches from my own." She put her hands to her face and shuddered. "It
was terrible, terrible. I shall never sleep in that room again."

"There--there, dearie," Mrs. Morton whispered in a soothing voice. "You
need not sleep there. You can lie right here, for the rest of the night,
and I will stay with you and see that no one harms you."

"That would be best, Mrs. Morton," Duvall remarked. "And to-morrow I
suggest that you and your daughter move, temporarily at least, to
another location. Some quiet hotel, where you will not be subject to
these terrible annoyances. I cannot imagine how it is done, but in some
way, some almost superhuman way, it seems, someone can apparently either
enter your daughter's room, or at least reach it from without, at will."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ruth, somewhat mystified.

"I mean this, Miss Morton. I do not believe that there was anyone in
your room to-night. I do not believe that there has ever been anyone
there. But I _do_ believe that the two letters we found there were
introduced from without, in some mysterious way, at the end of a long
pole, or rod. And I think that what frightened you so to-night was
merely a mask, a grotesque representation of the seal used on the
letters, and pushed toward you in some way, as you lay in bed for the
purpose of terrifying you."

"But--why--why?" the girl cried.

"I cannot say. But it has occurred to me that these people, whoever they
are, that are trying to injure you, may not intend any physical violence