"Joshua carried you back to the house, and I telephoned for a doctor. The doctor said that an attempt had been made to asphyxiate you. If we had been a minute or two later he could not have saved you."
"My God!" cried Forrester, receiving a shocking revelation. "The 'Friends of the Poor'! That is how their victims have been killed! How did you get that mask of death, Mary?"
"You had seized it with a deathlike grip. The doctor could hardly get it out of your hands. When the man fled he had to break the tubing to carry the rest of the apparatus away."
"What a wonderful piece of evidence!" exclaimed Forrester.
"Yes," admitted the girl, "but against whom will you use it?"
[CHAPTER XVI—THE FATAL DANCE]
Forrester's splendid health, and the prompt treatment he had received, quickly put him on his feet. The second day after his adventure he had sufficiently recovered to drive home in his car. This had been placed in the Bradbury barn by Joshua, who also completed the exchange of tires, which had been interrupted.
The effect of this incident upon his family worried Forrester. It would drive his mother into a state of hysterical fear that could not fail to seriously impede his investigations. When he mentioned this phase of his accident to Mary Sturtevant, however, he found that the clever and resourceful girl had foreseen and provided against such an occurrence.
Green had been summoned shortly after Forrester was brought to the house, the attack explained and instructions given to inform Forrester's family that a business proposition had called him away unexpectedly for a few days.
"No one outside of Mr. Green and my servants will ever know of this incident," Mary Sturtevant informed Forrester, "if you remain silent. And for my sake I know that you will."