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Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips), 1866-1946

"The Yellow Crayon"

"
"It is imperative," the Prince declared, with a sharp ring of
authority in his tone. "It is your own folly, for which you have
to pay. You went secretly to Emil Sachs. You paid surreptitious
visits to your husband, which were simply madness. You have
involved us all in danger. For our own sakes we must see that
you are removed."
"It is the very thing to excite suspicion--flight abroad," she
objected.
"Your flight," he said coolly, "will be looked upon from a different
point of view, for Reginald Brott must follow you. It will be an
elopement, not a flight from justice."
"And in case I should decline?" Lucille asked quietly.
The Prince shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, we have done the best we can for ourselves," he said. "Come,
I will be frank with you. There are great interests involved here,
and, before all things, I have had to consider the welfare of our
friends. That is my duty! Emil Sachs by this time is beyond risk
of detection. He has left behind a letter, in which he confesses
that he has for some time supplemented the profits of his wine-shop
by selling secretly certain deadly poisons of his own concoctions.
Alarmed at reading of the death of Duson immediately after he had
sold a poison which the symptoms denoted he had fled the country.
That letter is in the hands of the woman who remains in the
wine-shop, and will only be used in case of necessity.


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