"I don't think it makes any difference whether they were or not,"
Helen answered more decisively than she had spoken before. "It is in
that skull-and-cross-bones letter that you are most interested. I
think you can disregard the other entirely. I would say this,
however, that if both were written by one person, you have less to
fear than if the shorter one was written by your cousin or one of his
friends."

"Why?"

"Because if one person wrote both of them, he is probably suffering
from softening of the brain. But if the person who wrote the longer
one did not write the shorter one, there is more likelihood that he
means business and will attempt to carry out his threat."

"I never realized that you were such a Sherlock Holmes," Marion
exclaimed enthusiastically, while the suggestion came to her that
perhaps a genius for this sort of thing accounted for her friend's
peculiarities. "You ought to be a detective for a department store to
catch shoplifters."

"Thanks, Marion, for the compliment, but I am not inclined that way.
I'd rather do something in this case to keep our vacation plans from
ending in trouble."

"I was looking for someone who could advise me," Marion said; "and I
am now convinced that you are just the person I was looking for. What
do you think I ought to do, Helen?"