THE PROFESSOR'S RETURN.
"Dinner has been waiting for you ever so long, Herr Professor," called
Frau Franzka to me as I entered the kitchen, but hardly had I
approached her before she clasped her hands above her head with "Holy
Virgin, how you look! How pale! How distressed, and how dripping with
perspiration! Why, large drops are falling from your hair; no one can
climb about the mountains in the hottest part of the day. The District
Judge----"
"Is the District Judge at home!" I broke in.
"Yes; he came home about a quarter of an hour ago. I did not see him,
but I heard him going upstairs. He is in his room and is probably
dressing. The Herr Professor ought also to go to his room and dress.
You will take cold in your damp clothes."
I scarcely heard the last words. I hurried up the three flights of
stairs and in the passage looked about me for the door marked No.
12--the District Judge's sitting room. I knocked at the door; no
answer. I knocked more loudly; there came from within, as from an
adjoining room, "Who's there?"
"Professor Dollnitz. I must see you with regard to a matter of great
importance, Herr Foligno."
"I pray you just wait for a few minutes. I am dressing, but I'll be
ready immediately."
I had to wait. Whilst I stood motionless before the door I suddenly
became conscious of the intolerable thirst which, more than half an
hour before, had driven me to the Lonely House. During my great
excitement I had not been conscious of any physical need, but now in
the first moments of quiet it attacked me with double violence. I was
perfectly exhausted--almost fainting. Fortunately on the table in the
passage there stood a carafe half filled with water. It must have been
there for hours; the water was lukewarm, but I drank it eagerly and it
gave me the refreshment of which I stood in need. I was as one new
born.
I had to wait at least five minutes. The time seemed very long to me.
At last the door opened and the District Judge appeared in a new and
very elegant summer suit. His thin, sallow face had not attracted me on
the previous evening, and now as he received me with a forced friendly
smile I liked it still less.
"Forgive me for keeping you so long, Herr Professor," he said, "but I
could not open the door before; I was, to speak frankly, entirely
undressed when you knocked. I was obliged to change my clothes because,
in your interest, I have had quite a fatiguing walk on the mountain. I
am a little of a botanist--only a layman--but I am interested in
botany, and I was desirous to surprise the learned Herr Professor with
some rare plants whose habitat I knew. It cost me an effort to obtain
them, and even a little danger; I had a fall which gave me a slight
wound in my hand, but it is very insignificant, scarcely worth
mentioning, since I have procured what I desired. Here they are." With
his left hand (his right was wrapped in a white handkerchief) he took
some orchids from the table before the sofa and handed them to me. They
were of a beautiful and rare species, and at any other time would have
given me the keenest delight, but at this moment I scarcely looked at
them.
"I must reserve my thanks for a time," I said gravely, "the terrible
intelligence which I bring to you, Herr Foligno, as the foremost
official in the town, will admit of no delay. I come directly from the
Lonely House--the scene of a horrible murder and robbery."
The District Judge recoiled as from a sudden blow. Pallor as of death
overspread his sallow face. His mouth twitched; his eyes became glazed
and fixed on me with a look wherein gleamed downright fear and absolute
dismay.
"You came from the Lonely House--a murder and robbery! Incredible!" he
stammered. Terror so mastered him that he could scarcely utter these
few words.
"What I tell you is only too true," I replied, and then in the fewest
words I related what I had seen and how I had closed the open door and
hurried to Luttach in order to make him, as the chief authority of the
place, acquainted with the fearful crime.
During my short narrative he was struggling to regain his composure and
succeeded. He listened with his gaze fixed gloomily upon the floor.
When I finished, he cast upon me a searching, piercing glance, and his
voice trembled as he said, "Did you find no trace of the murderer! Did
you see no one in the neighbourhood of the Lonely House!"
On my way down the mountain it had been clear to me that it was my duty
to report my meeting with Franz Schorn, but when the District Judge put
this question to me, I suddenly felt a decided reluctance to inform him
of it. This man was Schorn's mortal enemy. Ought I to make him a sharer
of my suspicion, which had been aroused by nothing but a chance
encounter?
Still more searching and still more penetrating was the glance the
District Judge bestowed upon me as I hesitated to reply.
"Did you see no one in the neighbourhood of the house, or upon the path
towards it!" he asked once more.
As Judge he had a right to put the question and I ought to tell him the
truth. As I reflected thus, I overcame my reluctance and replied.
"I did encounter a man not far from the Lonely House in the forest, but
I cannot think myself justified in suspecting him of evil." I then
described accurately my meeting with Franz Schorn.
He listened in silence, his eyes still fixed on the floor. When I
finished, he said with emotion, extending his left hand to me: "I thank
you, Herr Professor; your report may be of the first importance for the
discovery of the murderer, but it may also subject an innocent man to a
horrible suspicion. As long as there is no evidence against a man
except that he was seen in the neighbourhood of the scene of a murder,
nothing would justify his being suspected of what, even as a mere
suspicion, might darken his whole future life. Therefore, let me
request you to allow me to consider your account of your meeting with
Herr Franz Schorn as a matter personal to myself and confidential, not
official. I shall then not be forced to include it in a short account
which I must write out of your information."
"You surprise me, Herr Foligno."
"I suppose so, and I owe you an explanation of my request. Herr Franz
Schorn is my bitter enemy and I have never concealed my dislike of him.
You were a witness yesterday evening of my quarrel with Captain Pollenz
and my clerk. Precisely on this account I do not wish to include in my
official paper a suspicion which I myself hold to be entirely
groundless. I promise you that I will neglect nothing that will lead to
the discovery of the murderer, that I will investigate every step which
Herr Schorn has taken to-day, and will have him watched by a thoroughly
competent detective. If he is guilty, I shall discover his guilt; but I
do not believe he is so, and because I am his foe I will not attach any
suspicion to him which, while the true murderer remains undiscovered,
might ruin his life, merely because at the time of the murder he had
been seen near the scene of the crime. Promise me, Herr Professor, that
you will tell no one at present of your meeting with Franz Schorn.
Should there be other and more important grounds for suspecting him, I
shall request you to give me your account officially."
I pressed the Judge's hand cordially, and joyfully gave him the promise
for which he asked. How unjustly I had judged this man! How I had
misunderstood him! I was ashamed of the reluctance I had felt to tell
him of my meeting with Franz Schorn.
"I must now make out a short official account of your information," the
District Judge continued. "You can hardly believe how difficult this is
for me. Your account has agitated me so profoundly that I can scarcely
control myself. I was very familiar with old Pollenz. He had indeed
many disagreeable qualities. Toward others he was often hard and
unyielding, but I never had anything to complain of in his behaviour to
me. He has often shown me favours. He was indeed almost a friend, and
now I must prepare a paper which shall show him to be the victim of a
horrible crime, which I must take the first steps to investigate. It
must be done. It is my duty. In spite of the pain which my right hand
gives me in writing, I will do it immediately."
He took a sheet of paper; pens and ink were at hand, and seated himself
on the sofa behind the large table to write. His hand could not have
been very painful, for it did not prevent his writing swiftly and
clearly. Now and then, without interrupting his writing, he addressed
some brief, leading question to me, and in scarcely ten minutes the
paper was finished. He read it aloud to me. It was wonderfully concise
and clear, without saying one word too much or too little, and I signed
it without an alteration. After he had added his own signature, he
said, "I must now beg you, Herr Professor, to accompany me to the
Lonely House. I shall immediately summon my assistant, as well as the
District Physician and the captain of gendarmes, to inspect the
premises. You, too, Herr Professor, must be present. You must testify
that nothing in the house has been altered in your absence. This is
important for further investigation. Can I count upon you!"
"Most certainly."
"Then pray hold yourself in readiness. In half an hour, at the latest,
I shall have notified the other gentlemen. The time of waiting, if I
may advise you, should be employed by you in strengthening yourself
with food and drink. Yon may not feel the need of refreshment at
present, but we have some sad hours before us."
How kind and thoughtful! I certainly had cause to ask pardon in my
heart of the District Judge for the prejudice he had created.