For a few seconds Jack held the mysterious missive in his hand, and then suddenly he burst out laughing.
“You surely won’t allow this to worry you?” he exclaimed. “Why, it’s only some crank—somebody we know who is playing a silly practical joke,”—and folding the letter, he gave it back to her with a careless air. “Such a letter as that doesn’t worry me for a single minute.”
“But it contains a distinct assertion—that you are doomed!” cried the girl, pale-faced and very anxious.
“Yes—it certainly is a very cheerful note. Whom do you know at Willesden?”
“Not a soul that I can think of. I’ve been puzzling my brains for days as to anybody I know there, but can think of no one.”
“It was posted out there on purpose, no doubt!” he laughed. “Well, if I were you, Elise, I wouldn’t give it another thought.”
“Ah, that’s all very well. But I can’t get rid of the distinct belief that some mischief is intended,” answered the girl very gravely.
“No, no, darling?” he assured her, placing his arm again round her slim waist, and kissing her fondly upon the lips. “Don’t anticipate any such thing. Somebody’s having a game with us. They think it a huge joke, no doubt.”
“But do look the facts in the face, Jack!” she urged. “These spies of Germany, swarming over the country as they do, will hesitate at nothing in order to gain victory for their barbarous Fatherland. Not only have we to fight the unscrupulous army of the Kaiser, remember, but another army of pro-Germans in our midst,—those pretended Englishmen who have their ‘spiritual homes’ in Berlin.”
“True. But don’t let that letter get on your nerves, darling. Burn it, and then forget it.”