“Well? Mercedes entered the room; what then?”
“She expressed the wish that I would enjoy myself at the banquet, and also the hope that I would drink less wine than usual. I replied that when she and my mother decided to rid the house of Orizaba I would be willing to give up wine altogether, and that the mere fact that he was to be present at the banquet was sufficient to make me get drunk, and I closed my remarks by taking Cadillac’s needle from the casket and holding it up to her view.
“‘As surely as there is a kingdom of heaven,’ I said, ‘I’ll jab this thing into his vertebra some day if he hangs around here much longer. I’ve had about all of him that I can stand.’”
“What reply did she make?”
“None whatever. She rose and left the room. Five minutes later I left the house and came to New York.”
“But you returned the needle to the casket?”
“Certainly.”
“Did you lock the casket?”
“I did.”
“You are positive of that?”