The Film of Fear

by Frederic Arnold Kummer

"The mailing of the first letter, the telephone messages, were comparatively simple. It was the delivery of those at the apartment that taxed her ingenuity. Yet the method was simple enough.

"The girls' father, I am told, had been an animal trainer in a circus, and one of his bequests to his daughters was a pet monkey named Jack, that had been taught to do all sorts of tricks. The girls brought this monkey to New York with them after their father's death. When the question arose of delivering the letters in your room, Miss Morton, she decided to make use of the animal.

"Creeping out of Marcia Ford's bedroom to the roof of the back building, and taking the monkey with her, she crossed the roof of the second house and reached the wall of the apartment. From here she was in a position to reach either of your bedroom windows in the following manner.

"The monkey was led by means of a long, thin rope, attached to a sort of harness about his neck and shoulders. By going to the rear edge of the back building they could readily swing him over to the fire-escape, while by ascending to the top of the attic roof overlooking the court, they could in the same way enable him to reach the other window. The monkey had been trained to carry objects in his mouth. This accounts for the row of indentations on the letters found in your room. I had supposed they came from some mechanical device, fastened to the end of a long pole, but as a matter of fact, they were made by the monkey's teeth.

"The animal being light in weight, and the pads of his feet being, of course, soft, no traces of his presence were left on the newly painted surface of the fire-escape. The handkerchief that I found there had been knotted about his neck as the collar to which the rope was fastened had seemed a bit weak. In some way it became detached, probably when the girls jerked on the cord to summon him back after he had completed his task.

"In crossing the roofs of the two houses, the monkey's paws, as well as the rope, became covered with dust. This explains the spots which seemed to be finger marks upon the counterpane of your bed, and the long, dark straight line across the bed, which I thought might have been left by a rod or pole. As a matter of fact, it was made by a tightly stretched rope.

"The sending of the monkey on the night when you were lying in bed must have been a mistake. You will remember that, contrary to your usual habit, you retired that night very early—a little after eight o'clock, if I remember correctly. The girls, coming over the room, saw that your room was dark, and naturally supposed that no one was in it. The grinning face of the monkey standing on the bed beside you, was the death's head apparition you thought you saw. At your cries the two women at once jerked on the cord, and the monkey hastened back to them through the partly raised window, leaving no trace of his presence except the black smudges of which I have spoken.

"I have no doubt that Jane Ford followed me back to my hotel after one of my early visits to your apartment, and thus learned my name and address. Her supposition that I was engaged in an attempt to ferret out the writer of the letters was a shrewd guess.

"The photograph was stolen from the studio by Marcia Ford who, being an employee, had ample opportunity to stroll about the place after office hours without exciting suspicion. She also arranged the subsequent delivery of the photograph and the substitution of the fake telegram.

"Even when I made my night visit to Marcia Ford's room, and was attacked in the dark by the monkey, I did not suspect what it was. The room was pitch dark, and in the gloom I got the impression of a much larger object—a person, in fact, and this impression was heightened by the fact that the animal wore a silken jacket, and I felt the sleeve of it against my throat. I only regret that the noise, the cries he made, singularly human in quality, made it necessary for me to leave the place so precipitately.