Hugo Devel prefers being hanged to living with his wife.
Unable to escape her in any other way, lacking the courage or nerve to
kill himself, and shuddering at the idea of life imprisonment with the
woman he had promised to love and cherish, he confessed to a murder
he did not commit, and was ready to go upon the gallows or to penal
servitude for life in the stead of the real murderer.
[Illustration: HE'D RATHER BE HANGED THAN LIVE WITH HIS WIFE.]
Now he is free, and miserable, and in his home at Lubeck, in Germany.
He is envying Franz Holz, who is awaiting the gallows.
Devel admits sadly that he had a double purpose in wanting to die on
the gallows. First, that he would escape his wife; and, second, that,
by being hanged he would make it improbable that any other man should
meet his fate--not his fate on the gallows, but his fate in having
wedded Frau Devel.
The case, which was cleared up by the Hamburg police, furnished a
problem that would have defied the cunning of Sherlock Holmes and all
his kindred analysts. Briefly stated, the facts in the case, which is
the strangest one ever given to a detective department to solve, are
these: