CHAPTER IV.
THE FALSE MESSAGE.
Roland Packard was exultant as he hastily left Vanderbilt. Safe in his pocket was the precious message.
“I have it! I have it!” he laughed, as he hastened away. “Oh, that was a piece of luck! Let Oll fight it out with them. He’ll get off somehow, and they never can prove I did it.”
He seemed utterly regardless of the shame and humiliation he had cast upon his brother by his rascally act. Having sunk lower and lower, Roland’s conscience no longer gave him much trouble, no matter what he did.
“Five hundred dollars!” he muttered. “All mine! That will clear me of every debt.”
He was hastening to find Anton Mescal, when, of a sudden, he stopped.
“If that man is willing to pay five hundred dollars for this message the old envelope must contain something of great importance.”
That set him to thinking, and soon he softly exclaimed:
“I’d like to know what is in that envelope! It might be worth much more than five hundred dollars to me.”
He was on Chapel Street, opposite the green. Glancing around to make sure he was not watched, he took the envelope from his pocket and examined it.