"
"He has revealed to you more than his mother ever revealed to your
aunt?"
"Yes."
"Tell me what he revealed to you."
"I cannot."
"Oh, but you can."
"No, I am bound by an oath; I cannot break my oath."
The detective meditated and then asked:
"Do you know that Donetti is in New York?"
"I do not."
"Have you reason to suspect that he is?"
"I had no reason to so suspect until you indicated that he was possibly
the author of the warning note, then I did suspect that he was in New
York."
"Have you any grounds for believing that he is a criminal?"
"I have not."
"Then why do you fear he may be with the robbers to-night?"
"I do not know to what desperate deeds his many wrongs and privations
may have driven him. If he is in New York I will find him. If he is
being driven toward the career of a criminal I will save him. If you
arrest him I cannot save him, and yet he deserves to be saved, for he is
the victim of a great wrong."
Again the detective meditated.
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