“No.” The girls were agreed on that point.
“And it cannot have been Twenty-ninth, or Thirty-ninth or any of the higher numbered streets in the pines. Because the word Ninth was too near the left side of the envelope. So I think it is safe to assume that Ninth Street was intended.”
“Splendid!” exclaimed Arden. “Terry, your mother should be in entire charge of this mystery investigation.”
“Oh, no, my dear. None of that for me, if you please,” Mrs. Landry laughed.
“But you’re helping us so!” murmured Sim.
“This may be no help at all, as it turns out. But I’ll go on to the end as far as I can. We’ll decide on Ninth Street. That, as you know, is at least partly in what is, or was, the Greenwich Village section of New York.
“I think it safe to say there are Russians there. You know there are artists and writers living there and all sorts of odd tearooms, some undoubtedly of Russian character.”
“Oh, we are coming on!” cried Arden. “What next, Mrs. Landry?”
“Well, I should say, from looking at this, that no house number was ever put in front of the street. Whoever wrote this must have known that the letter would go to its destination without a house number on it. The writer must have sent other letters in the same way, trusting to the mail man knowing where to leave it.”
“Some mail man!” commented Terry admiringly.