"Help me!" she gasped. "There is the book. Count the words from the bottom of the page while I read the numbers aloud to you."
And placing both her weapons and ammunition in the hands of her deadliest enemy, they translated together the words:
"Body disinterred. Murder committed by suffocation. Everything points to person suspected. The necessity to play your part with consummate skill is greater than ever. Take care, and trust no one.
E. S."
But the warning had come too late.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
The shock of the telegram seemed to impart to Carlita the strength she required for action.
She felt a new vitality, new courage pouring through her like the false, effervescent strength from wine, but she did not recognize its falsity. She felt herself capable of anything to bring Leith Pierrepont to justice, to bring to the gallows the craven coward that had robbed Olney Winthrop of life.
"The carriage is here; let us go out!" she cried feverishly to Jessica. "I can be ready in five minutes."
She arose and placed the two telegrams with their translations in her desk, together with the volume of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," and locked it carefully, while Jessica went away to her own room.