The Agony Column, page 59 by Earl Derr Biggers
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puzzlement, in indecision. Now I have made up my mind. There is no other way --I must tell you the truth.
Despite the fact that Bray was Von der Herts; despite the fact that he killed himself at the discovery--despite this and that, and everything--Bray did not kill Captain Fraser-Freer!
On last Thursday evening, at a little after seven o'clock, I myself climbed the stairs, entered the captain's rooms, picked up that knife from his desk, and stabbed him just above the heart!
What provocation I was under, what stern necessity moved me--all this you must wait until to-morrow to know. I shall spend another anxious day preparing my defense, hoping that through some miracle of mercy you may forgive me--understand that there was nothing else I could do.
Do not judge, dear lady, until you know everything--until all my evidence is in your lovely hands. YOURS, IN ALL HUMILITY.
The first few paragraphs of this the sixth and next to the last letter from the Agony Column man had brought a smile of relief to the face of the girl who read. She was decidedly glad to learn that her friend no longer languished back of those gray walls on Victoria Embankment. With excitement that increased as she went along, she followed Colonel Hughes as--in the letter--he moved nearer and nearer his denouement, until finally his finger pointed to Inspector Bray sitting guilty in his chair. This was an eminently satisfactory solution, and it served the inspector right for locking up her friend. Then, with the suddenness of a bomb from a Zeppelin, came, at the end, her strawberry man's confession of guilt. He was the murderer, after all! He admitted it! She could scarcely believe her eyes.
Yet there it was, in ink as violet as those eyes, on the note paper that had become so familiar to her during the thrilling week just past. She read it a second time, and yet a third. Her amazement gave way to anger; her cheeks flamed. Still--he had asked her not to judge until all his evidence was in. This was a reasona