"Yes, that is just what I do mean. Let him tell you himself. If he won't then, I will; and I shall add the rest. The rest is blacker still."
It was some time before von Felsen could bring himself to speak, and then he gave a long rambling story of how he had been in Ziegler's power, and had been forced to disclose secret after secret, until the theft of the papers had been the climax. Questions from me brought out the rest--that he had brought Baron von Ringheim to Berlin; had let him know where Althea was in order to entrap me; and all the rest of it, including my abduction by Dragen, and the attempts on my life.
Borsen was almost unnerved. He sat with his head buried in his hands as he listened, and at the end his face was grey and drawn, and he looked across at me with a deep sigh of anguish. "We are in your hands, Mr. Bastable. It will ruin the Count."
"There is even worse yet, if it has to be told," I replied grimly.
"What are your terms?"
"A pardon for Baron von Ringheim and the restoration of his estates--you have already obtained the promise of that, you know--and the clearance of all complications affecting myself; a confession that he lied to Hagar Ziegler in accusing me of her father's murder; a letter from you now that you have heard von Felsen's confession; and a written undertaking that you will be responsible for his safe keeping until all is settled."
"You shall have them to-morrow," he said after a pause.
"Thank you, I prefer to have them now."
"But I cannot promise all this on my own account."
"Then we'll have the police here. I don't mean to lose sight of that scoundrel again until I know where I stand."