Nick broke the seal, spread the letter open before him and read aloud:
“Mr. Danton: Although I have killed Ramon Orizaba, deliberately, and after waiting ten years, and in the meanwhile gloating over the prospect of doing so, I am not sufficiently a scoundrel to leave you to pay the penalty of my crime. I have thought of many ways of putting him out of the way, and your Cadillac needle has suggested the best one. But I am afraid that the glass is not strong enough, so I have substituted one of steel. At first I thought it might not be discovered that he was killed and that his death would be attributed to natural causes, but I will not take that chance with your life and reputation in the balance, so I write this.
“Why I have killed him does not matter to you. I will say nothing which will lead to my apprehension, and all the detectives in the world cannot find me or take me.
“I was obliged to use the cork handle of your needle in order to be successful—in order to push the weapon into his neck. You will find the glass one under the vase on the mantle in my room.
Rogers.”
“Brief and to the point,” said Nick, putting down the letter; and as he did so Mercedes rose in her place and crossed the room to him, extending both hands.
“You have been our savior,” she said; “my savior as well as Reginald’s. God bless you!”
CHAPTER XI.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MERCEDES.
When Nick left Linden Fells he carried with him not only the heartfelt thanks of the Danton family, but also the sincere friendship of Reginald. Clever detective though he was, he could not quite define the queer little tingling feeling in the region of his heart when the picture of Mercedes Danton, as he had first seen her in the rose-garden, recurred to him.
In one thing his calculations had failed. The headquarters detectives did not succeed in arresting Rogers. Although they promptly responded to Nick’s telegram, and the best men on the force were detailed to take the self-confessed murderer into custody, he succeeded in eluding them, as he said in his letter to Reginald Danton he would do.