So great was her agitation that Claire Blackwood went in search of the nurse, for she feared some emotional outburst beyond her power to control.
The disturbing letter was a plain looking affair, on ordinary letter paper, and it read:
“Mrs Varian.
We have your daughter safe. We are holding her for ransom. Your reward does not tempt us at all but if you are ready to pay one hundred thousand dollars, you may have your child back. If not, you will never see her again. There must be no dickering, no fooling, and, above all, no police interference. I will not go into details now, but if you want to take up with this offer put a personal in any of the large Boston papers, saying, “I agree,” and all directions will be sent to you as to how to proceed. But if you tell the police or allow any detective to know anything about this deal, it is all off. Don’t think you can fool us, we have eyes in the back of our heads and any insincerity or breach of faith on your part will result in sad results to your daughter. To carry this thing through you must trust and obey us implicitly and any lapse will mean far deeper trouble than you are in now.”
The letter was not signed, nor was it dated. The postmark was Boston, and it had been mailed the day before.
“It’s a fake,” Granniss declared, at once.
“I don’t think so,” said Claire Blackwood, “it sounds real to me——”
“I don’t care whether it’s real or not,” Minna interrupted, excitedly. “I mean I don’t care whether anybody believes it’s real or not. I’m going to answer it at once, and I’m going to agree to everything they say, and I’m not going to tell the police or a detective or anybody,—and I’m going to get Betty back.”
Her face was radiant with joy, her eyes shone and she was smiling for the first time since that awful day of the double tragedy.
“Now, look here, Mrs Varian,” began Granniss, who was convinced the whole letter was a mere attempt to get money under false pretenses, “you mustn’t throw away a hundred thousand dollars in that fashion!”
“Why not? It is a lot of money, but I have the sum and it means getting Betty back! What is any sum of money,—even my whole fortune, against that?”