“This may throw light upon it. He calls it a confession.”
“And the fact that he has called it that makes me hesitate once more about reading. But it must be done.”
Again Merry lifted the message to read.
Over his shoulder darted a hand that snatched the message from his grasp!
At the same moment, uttering a cry of warning, Bart Hodge sprang to his feet, pointing toward the parted portières behind Merriwell.
Merry shot to his feet like a flash, but he was barely in time to see a man disappearing between the portières.
A second time had the precious message been snatched from his fingers.
“Stop him!” shouted Hodge.
Merry was first to leap between the portières, and yet he was barely in time to see a man disappearing through a window that led out upon a fire-escape.
A single glimpse of the man’s face Merriwell obtained as he plunged after him. He saw him entering the open window of an adjoining room, the fire-escape running from one window to the other.