Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 25, No. 2, August 13, 1927

“Just as I thought. Now get this straight, I’m a fool of a doctor who accidentally fell heir to your capsule. I don’t care a whoop about it. My curiosity was aroused. You appeared to need assistance. Understand?”

She looked at me with eyes full of inquiry and indecision.

“Oh, I can’t understand anything,” she cried. “I don’t know where to turn. What reason would Blake have to keep this letter from my hands?”

“Reason enough,” I growled, “Unless I miss my guess, he’s in love with you and that letter proves, as sure as I am standing here, that he is a scoundrel.”

I sank back upon the bed, wearied by the effort to talk.

“Sonia,” I said finally, “I once read this advice to a lady who wanted a man to serve her on a dangerous mission: ‘Give him a potion, one part confidence, one part pride, and one part just compensation and he will lay the moon at your feet.’

“And I, Sonia, ask for only the first two. No matter how hard you have tried to make me believe that you are a part of this scheme, I know you are not I know that circumstances must have forced you under the control of Blake, sent you to my home and brought you here.

“What is it you seek? Tell me and I swear that I will aid you to the limit of my ability. I will cheerfully give you the half of the tom letter and will ransack the country for the missing part. But first you must give me the truth.

“There is nothing to prevent you from being frank with me, is there?”

She stood looking down at me and I could see that my words had made a great impression on her.

“There are some things that I will not tell to a living soul,” she said at last, “but I will admit that your surmise as to my presence in your home and here is true. The letter of which you possess a part explains a crime for which an innocent man must suffer.

“He was just a boy, a student in Paris, when an unscrupulous man hired him to carry a package to the United States. He accepted and when the boat landed at New York he was arrested and searched. The package was found upon him. It was opened and found to contain stolen diamonds worth a fortune.

“The youth was sentenced to two years in Leavenworth for smuggling, but when his time is up he will be taken back to Paris to be tried for the theft. The possession of the gems is enough to convict him. It means twenty-five years in a French dungeon.

“That, my curious friend, is why I seek the letter. Do you understand now?”

“Yes,” said I, “It makes a number of things clear to me. For instance, Joshua Barton is the man who wrote the letter and Blake is the fellow who received it. Probably they are the thieves who stole the diamonds.”

“Do you know Barton?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“He is a thief and a cheat.” It was said bitterly. “Yet he is so fortified with money and a fine reputation that it is impossible for a friendless woman to make a case against him.”

With gesture of unutterable weariness she turned to go, but I raised up on one elbow and called her back.

“Sonia,” said I, “what is in the next building that makes you weep so bitterly.”

In the doorway she turned on me, drew a swift, nervous breath and stood there rigidly. Her face was blanched, her eyes terror stricken. One look at her and I was instantly sorry that I had spoken.

“Don’t talk about that,” she replied in a voice that trembled, “and if you get out of here, stay away from that building. Promise me.”

“Well, I—”

“Promise!”

“I promise.”

She left the room and this time I did not try to stop her. Instead I lay back on my pillow and thought of the things she had said. Barton, whoever he was, must be a thorough thief and Blake was probably his accomplice.

But why was Blake now making such a desperate effort to recover the paper? And what did its message mean? My thoughts ran back over its words; they sounded harmless enough. Yet they must have some hidden meaning to make a young girl associate herself with brigands, lead men to commit murder, and cause the kidnaping of a respectable young physician.

With an oath to see the adventure through to the end, I dismissed the matter from my mind and speedily went to sleep, and when I awoke, hours later, the helpless feeling had passed away and I was quite myself once more. I lay upon my couch stretching my legs and flexing my arms when the girl returned, carrying a small glass of whisky which I emptied readily.

“That,” she said as she watched me drain the tumbler, “is the potion you spoke of this morning.”

“Do you mean it?” I asked her,

“I have been thinking over what you said,” she replied, withdrawing her hand. “You must leave here. Listen to me carefully. Later to-night I will lift the bar which locks your door from the outside. Make your way to the wharf. You will find boats there. Get away! Your life is in danger.”

“But Sonia—”

“Do as I say. I can’t explain now. Something has happened.”

“I can’t leave you here,” I protested.

I was on my feet now and she walked up to me and placed her hands upon my shoulders.

“You are a brave fellow, doctor,” she said. “Good luck to you.”