“I hope so, Danton—I hope so.”
CHAPTER XIII.
MERCEDES’ FLIGHT FROM HOME.
The meeting between the detective and Reginald Danton took place shortly before dark on the evening of the last Sunday in June and, therefore, at about six o’clock.
After an hour passed together, during which Danton could give Nick but little more in the way of information than that which has already been recorded, the young man took his departure and the detective was left alone to think over the incidents of the afternoon.
He had agreed with young Danton that he would go out to the Fells early the following day and there hold an interview with the maid, and after looking over the ground more thoroughly, would determine if there really existed any reason why he should search for the temporary hiding-place of Mercedes Danton.
“You see,” he said, in conclusion, in talking with his friend, “it is one thing if she has been induced to leave home through any undue influence, and it is another if she has simply gone away of her own free will. But I agree with you, Danton, for from what I know of your sister, I do not think she would do such a thing, when there is, or appears to be, no reason for her action.”
When, however, Danton had taken his departure, and the detective was seated alone in his room, he went slowly over the ground that had already been covered, much more deliberately than he had done while the young millionaire was with him.
His first remark, too, made to himself in the privacy of his own den, demonstrated the general trend of his conjectures.
“Mercedes Danton never left her home in that manner of her own free will,” he said aloud. “I am as positive of that point as if she had told me so herself. Now, let me see what I already know about the circumstances surrounding her, in her home, which might lead to some clue for the reasons of her going. I’ll go back first to the killing of Orizaba.”
“Ramon Orizaba was reputed to be a distant relative. He was killed by Paul Rogers, Reginald Danton’s valet. Letters found among the effects of Orizaba showed that he had been pursued by a Nemesis for upward of ten years, but they do not demonstrate clearly why. Rogers had been in the employ of Danton for about two years—something more, I believe. I found the whole family rather reticent about both Orizaba and Rogers, and while at the time I attributed that reticence to mere family pride, it now appears that there might have been another reason for it.