"Yes, Miss, I saw her. She was a friend of Mrs. Bradley's, she said, and I supposed Mrs. Bradley had told her to go upstairs."
"I tell you, that woman who just went upstairs means harm--terrible harm, to Miss Bradley--Miss Morton. Oh--don't stand there wasting time. Come up with me at once, and you will see that I am right----"
"But--who are you, Miss? What have you to do with the matter?"
"What difference does that make, if what I say is true? If you must know, I am a detective employed by Mrs. Morton----"
"Employed by Mrs. Morton! And yet you didn't know her when you saw her! My dear woman, your story does not hang together----"
"It is my husband, Mr. Duvall, who is employed by her. He was registered here under the name of Bradley, too. I am trying to help him."
"Oh!" The clerk seemed somewhat more inclined to accord her serious attention. "Very well. I will go to the room with you, and see if everything is all right."
"And hurry, please--hurry." Grace started toward the elevators.
Then a sudden thought came to her. Suppose the woman was to make her escape, coming down in one of the elevators, while she and the clerk were going up in another. There had been ample time, she knew, for her to have murdered Ruth, were that her plan, and have already left the room.
"Wait just a moment," she cried to the clerk, who had said a few words to one of his assistants and was leaving the desk to join her. "I must speak to my cabman, but I'll be back in a moment." She dashed through the entrance doors and hurried to the point where Leary sat at his steering wheel.
"Wait here," she whispered to him, "until I come back, unless the woman we have been following comes out. If she does come out, and drive away, follow her, and find out where she goes. Then telephone me here. I will leave my name at the desk, and wait until I hear from you."
Leary nodded, and Grace quickly re-entered the lobby and joined the waiting clerk.
"Instruct your telephone operators," she said to him, "to let me know, in case anyone calls up Mrs. Duvall."
The clerk gave the necessary instructions, and the two then entered one of the elevators and quickly made their way to the seventh floor, upon which Mrs. Morton's apartment was located.