This letter was enclosed in a coarse envelope, and evidently directed by a hand unaccustomed to the use of a pen.

James Starr tore it open.

It contained only a scrap of paper, yellowed by time, and apparently torn out of an old copy book.
On this paper was written a single sentence, thus worded: "It is useless for the engineer James Starr to trouble himself, Simon Ford's letter being now without object." No signature..