She reached Brakely Square and would have passed straight up to her room, but the butler, with an air of importance, stopped her.
"I have a letter here, miss. It is very urgent. The messenger asked that it should be placed in your hands at the earliest possible moment."
She took the letter from him. It was addressed to her in typewritten characters. She stripped the envelope and found yet another inside. On it was typewritten:
"Read this letter when you are absolutely alone. Lock the door and be sure that nobody is near when you read it."
She raised her pretty eyebrows. What mystery was this? she asked. Still, she was curious enough to carry out the request. She went straight to her own room, opened the envelope, and took out a letter containing half a dozen lines of writing.
She gasped, and went white, for she recognized the hand the moment her eyes fell upon it. The letter she held in her shaking hand ran:
"I command you to marry Frank Doughton within seven days. My whole fortune and my very life may depend upon this."
It was signed "Gregory Farrington," and heavily underlined beneath the signature were the words, "Burn this, as you value my safety."
* * * * *
T. B. Smith stepped briskly into the office of his chief and closed the door behind him.