Читать книгу The Mystery Lady - Robert William Chambers - Страница 9

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After a night of such agony as he never dreamed could be, even in hell, the boy was terrified by a ring at his door-bell. But it was only a messenger boy with a wireless dispatch from his sister in mid-ocean, whose steamer, she warned him, would dock in four days.

Haggard, half dead from the shock of it all, almost crazed by his ruin and threatened disgrace, he packed a suit-case and sat down to write a letter to his sister. He was shaking all over. Had Welper not taken his pistol away he probably would have committed the supreme fool act.

Very shakily and painfully the boy wrote out the circumstances of his connection with Orizava Oil from the beginning. He ended with the fear expressed that it was a gigantic swindle and that his money was gone forever.

Then, forcing his flagging hand, he wrote out the history of his love for Mrs. Wyvern and how it had ended.

And last of all he told her about the Bonnet-Eden-Teach documents, the parchment covered with South American symbols, his attempt to raise money to buy Tiger Island, his temptation, disgrace, the restitution, and how utterly he had put himself into the hands of this woman and this man who now were about to hand him over to the police.

“Sis,” he continued, “I’ve been a fool. I can’t face the disgrace. I can’t disgrace you. I’m ruined utterly. They mean to send me to prison. They have sufficient evidence.

“There’s only one way out of it to save the family name. I’m going to Place-of-Swans. You will get a telegram by Thursday from old Jake saying I’ve had a bad accident with a shotgun. I’ll be dead, Sis darling. It’s the only way. You’ll find this letter at your bank waiting for you. I enclose our safe-deposit key. The half of the parchment which Welper did not steal is in the box at the Imperial Trust Company, which you and I rent together. If the paper is of value, turn it over to your lawyer and try to get hold of Tiger Island before Welper buys it. I firmly believe it is worth millions. Good-bye, dear Sister. Forgive me for being a fool. I wasn’t a thief; I did give back everything, no matter what they say.

“Your unhappy brother.”

Three days later, when the boy’s sister landed, a telegram awaited her to say that her only brother had been drowned off Tiger Island by the capsizing of his sailboat.