G--------, Friday, Sept. 23rd.
An envelope, not yet addressed, lay beside this letter. It was clear
that the man who penned these words had no thought of suicide. On
the contrary, he was looking forward to a day of pleasure in the near
future, and laying plans for the time to come. The murderer’s bullet had
pierced a heart pulsing with the joy of life.
This was the gist of the account in the evening paper. Muller read
it through carefully, lingering over several points which seemed to
interest him particularly. Then he turned to Miss Babette Graumann. “And
then what happened?” he asked.
“Then the Police Commissioner came to Grunau and questioned my nephew.
They had found out that Albert was Mr. Siders’ only friend here. And
late that evening the Mayor and the Commissioner came to our house with
the revolver they had found in the room in G------, and they--they--” her
voice trembled again, “they arrested my dear boy and took him away.”
“Have you visited him in prison? What does he say about it himself?”
“He seems quite hopeless. He says that he is innocent--oh, I know he
is--but everything is against him. He acknowledges that it was he who
was in Mr. Siders’ room the evening before the murder. He went there
because Siders wrote him to come. He says he left early, and that John
acted queerly. He knows they will not believe his story. This worry and
anxiety will kill him. He has a serious heart trouble; he has suffered
from it for years, and it has been growing steadily worse. I dare not
think what this excitement may do for him.” Miss Graumann broke down
again and sobbed aloud. Muller laid his hands soothingly on the little
old fingers that gripped the arm of the chair.
“Did your nephew send you here to ask for help?” he inquired very
gently.
“Oh, no!” The old lady looked up at him through her tears. “No, he would
not have done that. I’m afraid that he’ll be angry if he knows that I
have come. He seemed so hopeless, so dazed. I just couldn’t stand it.
It seemed to me that the police in G-------- were taking things for granted,
and just sitting there waiting for an innocent man to confess, instead
of looking for the real murderer, who may be gone, the Lord knows where,
by now!” Miss Graumann’s faded cheeks flushed a delicate pink, and she
straightened up in her chair again, while her eyes snapped defiance
through the tears that hung on their lashes.
A faint gleam twinkled up in Muller’s eyes, and he did not look at his
chief. Doctor von Riedau’s own face glowed in a slowly mounting flush,
and his eyes drooped in a moment of conscious embarrassment at some
recollection, the sting of which was evidently made worse by Muller’s
presence. But Commissioner von Riedau had brains enough to acknowledge
his mistakes and to learn from them. He looked across the desk at Miss
Graumann. “You are right, Madam, the police have made that mistake more
than once. And a man with a clear record deserves the benefit of the
doubt. We will take up this case. Detective Muller will be put in charge
of it. And that means, Madam, that we are giving you the very best
assistance the Imperial Police Force affords.”
Miss Babette Graumann did not attempt to speak. In a wave of emotion she
stretched out both little hands to the detective and clasped his warmly.
“Oh, thank you,” she said at last. “I thank you. He’s just like my own
boy to me; he’s all the child I ever had, you know.”
“But there are difficulties in the way,” continued the commissioner in
a business-like tone. “The local authorities in G-------- have not asked for
our assistance, and we are taking up the case over their heads, as it
were. I shall have to leave that to Muller’s diplomacy. He will come to
G-------- and have an interview with your nephew. Then he will have to use
his own judgment as to the next steps, and as to how far he may go in
opposition to what has been done by the police there.”
“And then I may go back home?” asked Miss Graumann. “Go home with the
assurance that you will help my poor boy?”
“Yes, you may depend on us, Madam. Is there anything we can do for you
here? Are you alone in the city?”
“No, thank you. There is a friend here who will take care of me. She
will put me on the afternoon express back to G------.”
“It is very likely that I will take that train myself,” said Muller. “If
there is anything that you need on the journey, call on me.”
“Oh, thank you, I will indeed! Thank you both, gentlemen. And now
good-bye, and God bless you!”
The commissioner bowed and Muller held the door open for Miss Graumann
to pass out. There was silence in the room, as the two men looked after
the quaint little figure slowly descending the stairs.
“A brave little woman,” murmured the commissioner.
“It is not only the mother in the flesh who knows what a mother’s love
is,” added Muller.
Next morning Joseph Muller stood in the cell of the prison in G--------
confronting Albert Graumann, accused of the murder of John Siders.
The detective had just come from a rather difficult interview with
Commissioner Lange. But the latter, though not a brilliant man, was at
least good-natured. He acknowledged the right of the accused and his
family to ask for outside assistance, and agreed with Muller that it was
better to have some one in the official service brought in, rather than
a private detective whose work, in its eventual results, might bring
shame on the police. Muller explained that Miss Graumann did not want
her nephew to know that it was she who had asked for aid in his behalf,
and that it could only redound to his, Lange’s, credit if it were
understood that he had sent to Vienna for expert assistance in this
case. It would be a proof of his conscientious attention to duty,
and would insure praise for him, whichever way the case turned out.
Commissioner Lange saw the force of this argument, and finally gave
Muller permission to handle the case as he thought best, rather relieved
than otherwise for his own part. The detective’s next errand was to the
prison, where he now stood looking up into the deep-set, dark eyes of a
tall, broad-shouldered, black-bearded man, who had arisen from the cot
at his entrance. Albert Graumann had a strong, self-reliant face and
bearing. His natural expression was somewhat hard and stern, but it
was the expression of a man of integrity and responsibility. Muller had
already made some inquiries as to the prisoner’s reputation and business
standing in the community, and all that he had heard was favourable.
A certain hardness and lack of amiability in Graumann’s nature made it
difficult for him to win the hearts of others, but although he was not
generally loved, he was universally respected. Through the signs of
nagging fear, sorrow, and ill-health, printed clearly on the face before
him, Muller’s keen eyes looked down into the soul of a man who might
be overbearing, pitiless even, if occasion demanded, but who would not
murder--at least not for the sake of gain. This last possibility Muller
had dismissed from his mind, even before he saw the prisoner. The man’s
reputation was sufficient to make the thought ridiculous. But he had
not made up his mind whether it might not be a case of a murder after
a quarrel. Now he began to doubt even this when he looked into the
intelligent, harsh-featured face of the man in the cell. But Muller had
the gift of putting aside his own convictions, when he wanted his mind
clear to consider evidence before him.
Graumann had risen from his sitting position when he saw a stranger.
His heavy brows drew down over his eyes, but he waited for the other to
speak.
“I am Detective Joseph Muller, from Vienna,” began the newcomer, when he
had seen that the prisoner did not intend to start the conversation.
“Have you come to question me again?” asked Graumann wearily. “I can
say no more than I have already said to the Police Commissioner. And no
amount of cross-examination can make me confess a crime of which I
am not guilty--no matter what evidence there may be against me.”
The prisoner’s voice was hard and determined in spite of its note of
physical and mental weariness.
“I have not come to extort a confession from you, Mr. Graumann,” Muller
replied gently, “but to help you establish your innocence, if it be
possible.”
A wave of colour flooded the prisoner’s cheek. He gasped, pressed his
hand to his heart, and dropped down on his cot. “Pardon me,” he said
finally, hesitating like a man who is fighting for breath. “My heart is
weak; any excitement upsets me. You mean that the authorities are not
convinced of my guilt, in spite of the evidence? You mean that they will
give me the benefit of the doubt--that they will give me a chance for
life?”
“Yes, that is the reason for my coming here. I am to take this case in
hand. If you will talk freely to me, Mr. Graumann, I may be able to help
you. I have seen too many mistakes of justice because of circumstantial
evidence to lay any too great stress upon it. I have waited to hear your
side of the story from yourself. I did not want to hear it from others.
Will you tell it to me now? No, do not move, I will get the stool
myself.”
Graumaun sat back on the cot, his head resting against the wall. His
eyes had closed while Muller was speaking, but his quieter breathing
showed that he was mastering the physical attack which had so shaken
him at the first glimpse of hope. He opened his eyes now and looked at
Muller steadily for a moment. Then he said: “Yes, I will tell you: my
life and my work have taught me to gauge men. I will tell you everything
I know about this sad affair. I will tell you the absolute truth, and I
think you will believe me.”
“I will believe you,” said Muller simply.
“You know the details of the murder, of course, and why I was arrested?”
“You were arrested because you were the last person seen in the company
of the murdered man?”
“Exactly. Then I may go back and tell you something of my connection
with John Siders?”
“It would be the very best thing to do.”
“I live in Grunau, as you doubtless know, and am the engineering expert
of large machine works there. My father before me held an important
position in the factory, and my family have always lived in Grunau.
I have traveled a great deal myself. I am forty-five years old, a
childless widower, and live with my old aunt, Miss Babette Graumann,
and my ward, Miss Eleonora Roemer, a young lady of twenty-two.” Muller
looked up with a slight start of surprise, but did not say anything.
Graumann continued:
“A little over a year ago, John Siders, who signed himself as coming
from Chicago, bought a piece of property in our town and came to live
there. I made his acquaintance in the cafe and he seemed to take a fancy
to me. I also had spent several years in Chicago, and we naturally
came to speak of the place. We discovered that we had several mutual
acquaintances there, and enjoyed talking over the old times. Otherwise I
did not take particularly to the man, and as I came to know him better I
noticed that he never mentioned that part of his life which lay back of
the years in Chicago. I asked a casual question once or twice as to
his home and family, but he evaded me every time, and would not give a
direct answer. He was evidently a German by birth and education, a
man with university training, and one who knew life thoroughly. He had
delightful manners, and when he could forget his shyness for a while, he
could be very agreeable. The ladies of my family came to like him, and
encouraged him to call frequently. Then the thing happened that I should
not have believed possible. My ward, Miss Roemer, a quiet, reserved
girl, fell in love with this man about whom none of us knew anything, a
man with a past of which he did not care to speak.
“I was not in any way satisfied with the match, and they seemed
to realise it. For Siders managed to persuade the girl to a secret
engagement. I discovered it a month or two ago, and it made me very
angry. I did not let them see how badly I felt, but I warned Lora not to
have too much to do with the boy, and I set about finding out something
regarding his earlier life. It was my duty to do this, as I was the
girl’s guardian. She has no other relative living, and no one to turn to
except my aunt and myself. I wrote to Mr. Richard Tressider in Chicago,
the owner of the factory in which I had been employed while there. John
had told me that Tressider had been his client during the four years in
which he practiced law in Chicago. I received an answer about the middle
of August. Mr. Tressider had been able to find out only that John was
born in the town of Hartberg in a certain year. This was enough. I took
leave of absence for a few days and went to Hartberg, which, as you
know, is about 140 miles from here. Three days later I knew all that I
wanted to know. John Siders was not the man’s real name, or, rather, it
was only part of his name. His full name was Theodor John Bellmann, and
his mother was an Englishwoman whose maiden name was Siders. His father
was a county official who died at an early age, leaving his widow and
the boy in deepest poverty. Mrs. Bellmann moved to G--------to give music
lessons. Theodor went to school there, then finally to college, and was
an excellent pupil everywhere. But one day it was discovered that he
had been stealing money from the banker in whose house he was serving
as private tutor to the latter’s sons. A large sum of money was missing,
and every evidence pointed to young Bellmann as the thief. He denied
strenuously that he was guilty, but the District Judge (it was the
present Prosecuting Attorney Schmidt in G------) sentenced him. He spent
eight months in prison, during which time his mother died of grief at
the disgrace. There must have been something good in the boy, for he
had never forgotten that it was his guilt that struck down his only
relative, the mother who had worked so hard for him. He had atoned for
this crime of his youth, and during the years that have passed since
then, he had been an honest, upright man.”
Graumann paused a moment and pressed his hand to his heart again. His
voice had grown weaker, and he breathed hard. Finally he continued: “I
commanded my ward to break off her engagement, as I could not allow her
to marry a man who was a freed convict. Siders sold his property
some few weeks after that and moved to G------. Eleonora acquiesced in my
commands, but she was very unhappy and allowed me to see very little of
her. Then came the events of the evening of September 23rd, the events
which have turned out so terribly. I will try to tell you the story just
as it happened, so far as I am concerned. I had seen nothing of John
since he left this town. He had made several attempts before his
departure for G-------- to change my opinion, and my decision as to his
marriage to my ward. But I let him see plainly that it was impossible
for him to enter our family with such a past behind him. He asserted
his innocence of the charges against him, and declared that he had been
unjustly accused and imprisoned. I am afraid that I was hard towards
him. I begin to understand now, as I never thought I should, what it
means to be accused of crime. I begin to realise that it is possible for
every evidence to point to a man who is absolutely innocent of the deed
in question. I begin to think now that John may have been right, that
possibly he also may have been accused and sentenced on circumstantial
evidence alone. I have thought much, and I have learned much in these
terrible days.”
The prisoner paused again and sat brooding, his eyes looking out into
space. Muller respected his suffering and sat in equal silence, until
Graumann raised his eyes to his again. “Then came the evening of the
23rd of September?”
“Yes, that evening--it’s all like a dream to me.” Graumann began again.
“John wrote me a letter asking me to come to see him on that evening. I
tore up the letter and threw it away--or perhaps, yes, I remember now, I
did not wish Eleonora to see that he had written me. He asked me to come
to see him, as he had something to say to me, something of the greatest
importance for us both. He asked me not to mention to any one that I was
to see him, as it would be wiser no one should know that we were
still in communication with each other. There was a strain of nervous
excitement visible in his letter. I thought it better to go and see
him as he requested; I felt that I owed him some little reparation for
having denied him the great wish of his heart. It was my duty to make up
to him in other ways for what I had felt obliged to do. I knew him for
a nervous, high-strung man, overwrought by brooding for years on what he
called his wrongs, and I did not know what he might do if I refused his
request. It was not of myself I thought in this connection, but of the
girl at home who looked to me for protection.
“I had no fear for myself; it never occurred to me to think of taking a
weapon with me. How my revolver--and it is undoubtedly my revolver, for
there was a peculiar break in the silver ornamentation on the handle
which is easily recognisable--how this revolver of mine got into his
room, is more than I can say. Until the Police Commissioner showed it to
me two or three days ago, I had no idea that it was not in the box in
my study where it is ordinarily kept.” Graumann paused again and looked
about him as if searching for something. He rose and poured himself out
a glass of water. “Let me put some of this in it,” said Muller. “It will
do you good.” From a flask in his pocket he poured a few drops of brandy
into the water. Graumann drank it and nodded gratefully. Then he took up
his story again.
“I never discovered why Siders had sent for me. When I arrived at the
appointed time I found the door of the house closed. I was obliged to
ring several times before an old servant opened the door. She seemed
surprised that it had been locked. She said that the door was always
unlatched, and that Mr. Siders himself must have closed it, contrary to
all custom, for she had not done it, and there was no one else in the
house but the two of them. Siders was waiting for me at the top of the
stairs, calling down a noisy welcome.
“When I asked him finally what it was so important that he wanted to
say to me, he evaded me and continued to chatter on about commonplace
things. Finally I insisted upon knowing why he had wanted me to come,
and he replied that the reason for it had already been fulfilled, that
he had nothing more to say, and that I could go as soon as I wanted to.
He appeared quite calm, but he must have been very nervous. For as I
stood by the desk, telling him what I thought of his actions, he moved
his hand hastily among the papers there and upset the ink stand. I
jumped back, but not before I had received several large spots of ink on
my trousers. He was profuse in his apologies for the accident, and tried
to take out the spots with blotting paper. Then at last, when I insisted
upon going, he looked out to see whether there was still a light on the
stairs, and led me down to the door himself, standing there for some
time looking after me.
“I was slightly alarmed as well as angry at his actions. I believe
that he could not have been quite in his right mind, that the strain of
nervousness which was apparent in his nature had really made him ill.
For I remember several peculiar incidents of my visit to him. One
of these was that he almost insisted upon my taking away with me,
ostensibly to take care of them, several valuable pieces of jewelry
which he possessed. He seemed almost offended when I refused to do
anything of the kind. Then, as I parted from him at the door, not in a
very good humour I will acknowledge, he said to me: ‘You will think of
me very often in the future--more often than you would believe now!’
“This is all the truth, and nothing but the truth, about my visit to
John Siders on the evening of September 23rd. As it had been his wish
I said nothing to the ladies at home, or to any one else about the
occurrence. And as I have told you, I destroyed his letter asking me to
come to him.
“The following day about noon, the Commissioner of Police from G--------
called at my office in the factory, and informed me bluntly that John
Siders had been found shot dead in his lodgings that morning. I was
naturally shocked, as one would be at such news, in spite of the fact
that I had parted from the man in anger, and that I had no reason to
be particularly fond of him. What shocked me most of all was the sudden
thought that John had taken his own life. It was a perfectly natural
thought when I considered his nervousness, and his peculiar actions of
the evening before. I believe I exclaimed, ‘It was a suicide!’ almost
without realising that I was doing so. The commissioner looked at me
sharply and said that suicide was out of the question, that it was an
evident case of murder. He questioned me as to Siders’ affairs, of which
I told only what every one here in the village knew. I did not consider
it incumbent upon me to disclose to the police the disgrace of the man’s
early life. I had been obliged to hurt him cruelly enough because of
that, and I saw no necessity for blackening his name, now that he was
dead. Also, as according to what the commissioner said, it was a case
of murder for robbery, I did not wish to go into any details of our
connection with Siders that would cause the name of my ward to be
mentioned. After a few more questions the commissioner left me. I was
busy all the afternoon, and did not return to my home until later than
usual. I found my aunt somewhat worried because Miss Roemer had left the
house immediately after our early dinner, and had not yet returned. We
both knew the girl to be still grieving over her broken engagement,
and we dreaded the effect this last dreadful news might have on her.
We supposed, however, that she had gone to spend the afternoon with a
friend, and were rather glad to be spared the necessity of telling her
at once what had happened. I had scarcely finished my supper, when
the door bell rang, and to my astonishment the Mayor of Grunau was
announced, accompanied by the same Police Commissioner who had visited
me in my office that morning. The Mayor was an old friend of mine and
his deeply grave face showed me that something serious had occurred. It
was indeed serious! and for some minutes I could not grasp the meaning
of the commissioner’s questions. Finally I realised with a tremendous
shock that I--I myself was under suspicion of the murder of John Siders.
The description given by the old servant of the man who had visited
Siders the evening before, the very clothes that I wore, my hat and the
trousers spotted by the purple ink, led to my identification as this
mysterious visitor. The servant had let me in but she had not seen me go
out.
“Then I discovered--when confronted suddenly with my own revolver which
had been found on the floor of the room, some distance from the body of
the dead man, that this same revolver had been identified as mine by my
ward, Eleonora Roemer, who had been to the police station at G-------- in
the early afternoon hours. Some impulse of loyalty to her dead lover,
some foolish feminine fear that I might have spoken against him in my
earlier interviews with the commissioner had driven the girl to this
step. A few questions sufficed to draw from her the story of her secret
engagement, of its ending, and of my quarrel with John. I will say for
her that I am certain she did not realise that all these things were
calculated to cast suspicion on me. The poor girl is too unused to the
ways of police courts, to the devious ways of the law, to realise what
she was doing. The sight of my revolver broke her down completely
and she acknowledged that it was mine. That is all. Except that I was
arrested and brought here as you see. I told the commissioner the story
of my visit to John Siders exactly as I told it to you, but it was plain
to be seen that he did not believe me. It is plain to be seen also, that
he is firmly convinced of my guilt and that he is greatly satisfied with
himself at having traced the criminal so soon.”
“And yet he was not quite satisfied,” said Muller gently. “You see that
he has sent to the Capital for assistance on the case.” Muller felt this
little untruth to be justified for the sake of the honour of the police
force.
“Yes, I’m surprised at that,” said Graumann in his former tone of
weariness. “What do you think you will be able to do about it?”
“I must ask questions here and there before I can form a plan of
campaign,” replied Muller. “What do you think about it yourself? Who do
you think killed Siders?”
“How can I know who it was? I only know it is not I,” answered Graumann.
“Did he have any enemies?”
“No, none that I knew of, and he had few friends either.”
“You knew there was a sum of money missing from his rooms?”
“Yes, the sum they named to me was just about the price that he had
received for the sale of his property here. They did me the honour to
believe that if I had taken the money at all, I had done so merely as a
blind. At least they did not take me for a thief as well as a murderer.
If the money is really missing, it was for its sake he was murdered I
suppose.”
“Yes, that would be natural,” said Muller. “And you know nothing of any
other relations or connections that the man may have had? Anything that
might give us a clue to the truth?”
“No, nothing. He stood so alone here, as far as I knew. Of course, as I
told you, his actions of the evening before having been so peculiar--and
as I knew that he was not in the happiest frame of mind--I naturally
thought of suicide at once, when they told me that he had been found
shot dead. Then they told me that the appearance of the room and many
other things, proved suicide to have been out of the question. I know
nothing more about it. I cannot think any more about it. I know only
that I am here in danger of being sentenced for the crime that I never
committed--that is enough to keep any man’s mind busy.” He leaned back
with an intense fatigue in every line of his face and figure.
Muller rose from his seat. “I am afraid I have tired you, Mr. Graumann,”
he said, “but it was necessary that I should know all that you had to
tell me. Try and rest a little now and meanwhile be assured that I am
doing all I can to find out the truth of this matter. As far as I can
tell now I do not believe that you have killed John Siders. But I must
find some further proofs that will convince others as well as myself. If
it is of any comfort to you, I can tell you that during a long career as
police detective I have been most astonishingly fortunate in the cases I
have undertaken. I am hoping that my usual good luck will follow me here
also. I am hoping it for your sake.”
The man on the cot took the hand the detective offered him and
pressed it firmly. “You will let me know as soon as you have found
anything--anything that gives me hope?”
“I will indeed. And now save your strength and do not worry. I will help
you if it is in my power.”
After leaving the prison, Muller took the train for the village of
Grunau, about half an hour distant from the city. He found his way
easily to Graumann’s home, an attractive old house set in a large garden
amid groups of beautiful old trees. When he sent up his card to Miss
Graumann, the old lady tripped down stairs in a flutter of excitement.
“Did you see him?” she asked. “You have been to the prison? What do you
think? How does he seem?”
“He seems calm to-day,” replied Muller, “although the confinement and
the anxiety are evidently wearing on him.”
“And you heard his story? And you believe him innocent?”
“I am inclined to do so. But there is more yet for me to investigate in
this matter. It is certainly not as simple as the police here seem to
believe. May I speak to your ward, Miss Roemer? She is at home now?”
“Yes, Lora is at home. If you will wait here a moment I will send her
in.”
Muller paced up and down the large sunny room, casting a glance over the
handsome old pieces of furniture and the family portraits on the wall.
It was evidently the home of generations of well-to-do, well-bred
people, the narrow circle of whose life was made rich by congenial
duties and a comfortable feeling of their standing in the community.
While he was studying one of the portraits more carefully, he became
aware that there was some one in the room. He turned and saw a tall
blond girl standing by the door. She had entered so softly that even
Muller’s quick ear had not heard the opening of the door.
“Do you wish to speak to me?” she said, coming down into the room. “I am
Eleonora Roemer”
Her face, which could be called handsome in its even regularity of
feature and delicate skin, was very pale now, and around her eyes were
dark rings that spoke of sleepless nights. Grief and mental shock were
preying upon this girl’s mind. “She is not the one to make a confidant
of those around her,” thought Muller to himself. Then he added aloud:
“If it does not distress you too much to talk about this sad affair, I
will be very grateful if you will answer a few questions.”
“I will tell you whatever I can,” said the girl in the same low even
tone in which she had first spoken. “Miss Graumann tells me that you
have come from Vienna to take up this case. It is only natural that we
should want to give you every assistance in our power.”
“What is your opinion about it?” was Muller’s next remark, made rather
suddenly after a moment’s pause.
The directness of the question seemed to shake the girl out of her
enforced calm. A slow flush mounted into her pale cheeks and then died
away, again leaving them whiter than before. “I do not know--oh, I do
not know what to believe.”
“But you do not think Mr. Graumann capable of such a crime, do you?”
“Not of the robbery, of course not; that would be absurd! But has
it been clearly proven that there is a robbery? Might it not have
been--might they not have--”
“You mean, might they not have quarreled? Of course there is that
possibility. And that is why I wanted to speak to you. You are the one
person who could possibly throw light on this subject. Was there any
other reason beyond the dead man’s past that would render your guardian
unwilling to have you marry him?”
Again the slow flush mounted to Eleonora Roemer’s cheeks and her head
drooped.
“I fear it may be painful for you to answer this,” said Muller gently,
“and yet I must insist on it in the interest of justice.”
“He--my guardian--wished to marry me himself,” the girl’s words came
slowly and painfully.
Muller drew in his breath so sharply that it was almost like a whistle.
“He did not tell me that; it might make a difference.”
“That... that is... what I fear,” said the girl, her eyes looking keenly
into those of the man who sat opposite. “And then, it was his revolver.”
“Then you do believe him guilty?”
“It would be horrible, horrible--and yet I do not know what to think.”
There was silence in the room for a moment. Miss Roemer’s head drooped
again and her hands twisted nervously in her lap. Muller’s brain was
very busy with this new phase of the problem. Finally he spoke.
“Let us dismiss this side of the question and talk of another phase of
it, a phase of which it is necessary for me to know something. You would
naturally be the person nearest the dead man, the one, the only one,
perhaps, to whom he had given his confidence. Do you know of any enemies
he might have had in the city?”
“No, I do not know of any enemies, or even of any friends he had there.
When the terrible thing happened that clouded his past, when he had
regained his freedom, after his term of imprisonment, there was no one
left whom he cared to see again. He does not seem to have borne any
malice towards the banker who accused him of the theft. The evidence
was so strong against him that he felt the suspicion was justified. But
there was hatred in his heart for one man, for the Justice who sentenced
him, Justice Schmidt, who is now Attorney General in G------.”
“The man who, in the name of the State, will conduct this case?” asked
Muller quickly.
“Yes, I believe it is so. Is it not an irony that this man, the only one
whom John really hated, should be the one to avenge him now?”
“H’m! yes. But did you know of any friends in G------?”
“No, none at all.”
“No friends whom he might have made while he was in America and then met
again in Germany?”
“No, he never spoke of any such to me. He told me that he made few
friends. He did not seek them for he was afraid that they might find out
what had happened and turn from him. He was morbidly sensitive and could
not bear the disappointment.”
“Why did he return to Germany?”
“He was lonely and wanted to come home again. He had made money in
America--John was very clever and highly educated--but his heart longed
for his own tongue and his own people.”
Muller took a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “Do you know this
handwriting?”
Miss Roemer read the few lines hastily and her voice trembled as she
said: “This is John’s handwriting. I know it well. This is the letter
that was found on the table?”
“Yes, this letter appears to be the last he had written in life. Do you
know to whom it could have been written? The envelope, as I suppose you
know from the newspaper reports, was not addressed. Do you know of any
friends with whom he could have been on terms of sufficient intimacy to
write such a letter? Do you know what these plans for the future could
have been? It would certainly be natural that he should have spoken to
you first about them.”
“No; I cannot understand this letter at all,” replied the girl. “I have
thought of it frequently these terrible days. I have wondered why it was
that if he had friends in the city, he did not speak to me of them. He
repeatedly told me that he had no friends there at all, that his life
should begin anew after we were married.”
“And did he have any particular plans, in a business way, perhaps?”
“No; he had a comfortable little income and need have no fear for the
future. John was, of course, too young a man to settle down and do
nothing. But the only definite plans he had made were that we should
travel a little at first, and then he would look about him for a
congenial occupation. I always thought it likely he would resume a law
practice somewhere. I cannot understand in the slightest what the plans
are to which the letter referred.”
“And do you think, from what you know of his state of mind when you saw
him last, that he would be likely so soon to be planning pleasures like
this?”
“No, no indeed! John was terribly crushed when my guardian insisted on
breaking off our engagement. Until my twenty-fourth birthday I am
still bound to do as my guardian says, you know. John’s life and early
misfortune made him, as I have already said, morbidly sensitive and the
thought that it would be a bar to anything we might plan in the future,
had rendered him so depressed that--and it was not the least of my
anxieties and my troubles--that I feared... I feared anything might
happen.”
“You feared he might take his own life, do you mean?”
“Yes, yes, that is what I feared. But is it not terrible to think that
he should have died this way--by the hand of a murderer?”
“H’m! And you cannot remember any possible friend he may have
found--some schoolboy friend of his youth, perhaps, with whom he had
again struck up an acquaintance.”
“Oh, no, no, I am positive of that. John could not bear to hear the
names even of the people he had known before his misfortune. Still, I do
remember his once having spoken of a man, a German he had met in Chicago
and rather taken a fancy to, and who had also returned to Germany.”
“Could this possibly have been the man to whom the letter is addressed?”
“No, no. This friend of John’s was not married; I remember his
saying that. And he lived in Germany somewhere--let me think--yes, in
Frankfort-on-Main.”
“And do you remember the man’s name?”
“No, I cannot, I am sorry to say. John only mentioned it once. It was
only by a great effort that I could remember the incident at all.”
“And has it not struck you as rather peculiar that this friend, the one
to whom the cordial letter was addressed, did not come forward and make
his identity known? G-------- is a city, it is true, but it is not a very
large city, and any man being on terms of intimate acquaintance with one
who was murdered would be apt to come forward in the hope of throwing
some light on the mystery.”
“Why, yes, I had not thought of that. It is peculiar, is it not? But
some people are so foolishly afraid of having anything to do with the
police, you know.”
“That is very true, Miss Roemer. Still it is a queer incident and
something that I must look into.”
“What do you believe?” asked the girl tensely.
“I am not in a position to say as yet. When I am, I will come to you and
tell you.”
“Then you do not think that my guardian killed John--that there was a
quarrel between the men?”
“There is, of course, a possibility that it may have been so. You know
your guardian better than I do, naturally. Our knowledge of a man’s
character is often a far better guide than any circumstantial evidence.”
“My guardian is a man of the greatest uprightness of character. But he
can be very hard and pitiless sometimes. And he has a violent temper
which his weak heart has forced him to keep in control of late years.”
“All this speaks for the possibility that there may have been a quarrel
ending in the fatal shot. But what I want to know from you is this--do
you think it possible, that, this having happened, Albert Graumann would
not have been the first to confess his unpremeditated crime? Is not
this the most likely thing for a man of his character to do? Would he so
stubbornly deny it, if it had happened?”
The girl started. “I had not thought of that! Why, why, of course, he
might have killed John in a moment of temper, but he was never a man to
conceal a fault. He is as pitiless towards his own weakness, as towards
that of others. You are right, oh, you must be right. Oh, if you could
take this awful fear from my heart! Even my grief for John would be
easier to bear then.”
Muller rose from his chair. “I think I can promise you that this load
will be lifted from your heart, Miss Roemer.”
“Then you believe--that it was just a case of murder for robbery? For
the money? And John had some valuable jewelry, I know that.”
“I do not know yet,” replied Muller slowly, “but I will find out, I
generally do.”
“Oh, to think that I should have done that poor man such an injustice!
It is terrible, terrible! This house has been ghastly these days.
His poor aunt knows that he is innocent--she could never believe
otherwise--she has felt the hideous suspicion in my mind--it has made
her suffering worse--will they ever forgive me?”
“Her joy, if I can free her nephew, will make her forget everything. Go
to her now, Miss Roemer, comfort her with the assurance that you also
believe him to be innocent. I must hasten back to G-------- and go on with
this quest.”
The girl stood at the doorway shaded by the overhanging branches of
two great trees, looking down the street after the slight figure of the
detective. “Oh, it is all easier to hear, hard as it is, easier now that
this horrible suspicion has gone from my mind--why did I not think of
that before?”
Alone in the corner of the smoking compartment in the train to G------,
Muller arranged in his mind the facts he had already gathered. He had
questioned the servants of John Siders’ former household, had found
that the dead man received very few letters, only an occasional business
communication from his bank. Of the few others, the servants knew
nothing except that he had always thrown the envelopes carelessly in the
waste paper basket and had never seemed to have any correspondence which
he cared to conceal. No friend from elsewhere had ever visited him in
Grunau, and he had made few friends there except the Graumann family.
The facts of the case, as he knew them now, were such as to make it
extremely doubtful that Graumann was the murderer. Muller himself had
been inclined to believe in the possibility of a quarrel between the two
men, particularly when he had heard that Graumann himself was in love
with his handsome ward. But the second thought that came to him then,
impelled by the unerring instinct that so often guided him to the truth,
was the assurance that in a case of this kind, in a case of a quarrel
terminating fatally, a man like Albert Graumann would be the very first
to give himself up to the police and to tell the facts of the case.
Albert Graumann was a man of honour and unimpeachable integrity. Such
a man would not persist in a foolish denial of the deed which he had
committed in a moment of temper. There would be nothing to gain from it,
and his own conscience would be his severest judge. “The disorder in the
room?” thought Muller. “It’ll be too late for that now. I suppose they
have rearranged the place. I can only go by what the local detectives
have seen, by the police reports. But I do not understand this extreme
disorder. There is no reason why there should be a struggle when the
robber was armed with a pistol. If Siders was supposed to have been
interrupted when writing a letter, interrupted by a thief come with
intent to steal, a thief armed with a revolver, the sight of this weapon
alone would be sufficient to insure his not moving from his seat. I
can understand the open drawers and cupboard; that is explained by the
thief’s hasty search for booty. But the torn window curtain and the
overturned chairs are peculiar.
“Of course there is always a possibility that the thief might have
entered one room while Siders was in the other; that the latter might
have surprised the robber in his search for money or valuables, and that
there might have been a hand-to-hand struggle before the intruder could
pull out his revolver. Oh, if I could only have seen the body! This
is working under terrific difficulties. The marks of a hand-to-hand
struggle would have been very plain on the clothes and on the person of
the murdered man. But this letter? I do not understand this letter at
all. It is the dead man’s handwriting, that we know, but why did not the
friend to whom it was addressed come forward and make himself known? As
far as I can learn from the police reports in G------, there was no personal
interest shown, no personal inquiries made about the dead man. There was
only the natural excitement that a murder would create. Now a family,
expecting to make a pleasure excursion with a friend in a day or two
and suddenly hearing that this friend had been found murdered in his
lodgings, would be inclined to take some little personal interest in
the matter. These people must have been in town and at home, for the
excursion spoken of in the letter was to occur two days after the
murder. Miss Roemer’s remark about the dread that some people have as to
any connection with the police, is true to a limited extent only. It is
true only of the ignorant mind, not of a man presumably well-to-do and
properly educated. I do not understand why the man to whom this letter
was addressed has not made himself known. The only explanation
is--that there was no such man!” A sudden sharp whistle broke from the
detective’s lips.
“I must examine the dead man’s personal effects, his baggage, his
papers; there may be something there. His queer letter to Graumann--his
desire that the latter’s visit should be kept secret--a visit which
apparently had no cause at all, except to get Graumann to the house, to
get him to the house in a way that he should be seen coming, but should
not be seen going away. What does this mean?
“Graumann was the only person against whom Siders had an active cause of
quarrel for the moment. There was one other man whom he hated, and this
other man was the prosecuting attorney who would conduct any case of
murder that came up in the town of G------.
“Now John Siders is found murdered--is found killed, in his lodgings,
the morning after he has arranged things so that his antagonist, his
rival in love, Albert Graumann, shall come under suspicion of having
murdered him.
“What evidence have we that this man did not commit suicide? We have the
evidence of the disorder in the room, a disorder that could have been
made just as well by the man himself before he ended his own life. We
have the evidence of a letter to some unknown, making plans for
pleasure during the next days, and speaking of further plans, presumably
concerning business, for the future. In a town the size of G------, where
every one must have read of the murder, no one has come forward claiming
to be the friend for whom this letter was written. Until this Unknown
makes himself known, the letter as an evidence points rather to
premeditated suicide than to the contrary. Oh, if I could only have seen
the body! They tell me the pistol was found some little distance from
the body. Is it at all likely that a murderer would go away leaving such
evidence behind him? If Graumaun had killed Siders in a hasty quarrel,
he might possibly, in his excitement, have left his revolver. But I have
already disposed of this possibility. A man of sufficient brains to
so carefully plan his suicide as to conceal every trace of it and cast
suspicion upon the man who had made him unhappy, such a one would be
quite clever enough to throw the pistol far away from his body and to
leave no traces of powder on his coat or any such other evidence.
“If I were to say now what I think, I would say that John Siders
deliberately took his own life and planned it in such a way as to cast
suspicion upon Albert Graumann. But that would indeed be a terrible
revenge. And I must have some tangible proof of it before any court will
accept my belief. This proof must be hidden somewhere. The thing for me
to do is to find it.”
The evidence gathered at the time of the death went to show that Siders
had been paid a considerable sum in cash for the sale of his property at
Grunau. And there was no trace of his having deposited this sum in any
bank in G-------- or in Grunau, in both of which places he had deposited
other securities. Therefore the money had presumably been in his room
at the time of his death. A search had been made for this money in every
possible place of concealment among the dead man’s belongings, and it
had not been found. Muller asked the Police Commissioner to give him the
key to the rooms, which were still officially closed, and also the keys
to the dead man’s pieces of baggage. Commissioner Lange seemed to think
all this extra search quite unnecessary, as it did not occur to him that
anything else was to be looked for except the money.
It was quite late when Muller began his examination of the dead man’s
effects. He was struck by the fact that there was scarcely a bit of
paper to be found anywhere, no letters, no business papers, except bank
books showing the amount of his securities in the bank in G-------- and in
Grunau, and giving facts about some investments in Chicago. There was
nothing of more recent date and no personal correspondence whatever. The
same was true of the pockets of the suit Siders had been wearing at the
time of his death. A man of any property or position at all in the world
gathers about him so much of this kind of material that its absence
shows premeditation. The suit Siders had been wearing when he was killed
was lying on the table in the room. It was a plain grey business suit
of good cut and material. The body had been prepared for burial in
a beseeming suit of black. Muller made a careful examination of the
clothes, and found only what the police reports showed him had already
been found by the examination made by the local authorities. Upon a
second careful examination, however, he found that in one of the vest
pockets there was a little extra pocket, like a change pocket, and in
it he found a crumpled piece of paper. He took it out, smoothed and read
it. It was a post office receipt for a registered letter. The date was
still clear, but the name of the person to whom the letter had been
addressed was illegible. The creases of the paper and a certain
dampness, as if it had been inadvertently touched by a wet finger, had
smeared the writing. But the letter had been sent the day before the
death of John Siders, and it had been registered from the main post
office in G------. This was sufficient for Muller. Then he turned to the
desk. Here also there was nothing that could help him. But a sudden
thought, came to him, and he took up the blotting pad. This, to his
delight, was in the form of a book with a handsome embroidered cover. It
looked comparatively new and was, as Muller surmised, a gift from Miss
Roemer to her betrothed. But few of the pages had been used, and on two
of them a closely written letter had been blotted several times, showing
that there had been several sheets of the letter. Muller held it up to
the looking-glass, but the repeated blotting had blurred the writing
to such an extent that it was impossible to decipher any but a few
disconnected words, which gave no clue. On a page further along on
the blotter, however, he saw what appeared to be the impression of an
address. He held it up to the glass and gave a whistle of delight. The
words could be plainly deciphered here:
“MR. LEO PERNBURG,
“FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
“MAINZER LANDSTRASSE.”
and above the name was a smear which, after a little study, could be
deciphered as the written word “Registered.”
With this page of the blotter carefully tucked away in his pocketbook,
Muller hurried to the post office, arriving just at closing hour. He
made himself known at once to the postmaster, and asked to be shown
the records of registered letters sent on a certain date. Here he found
scheduled a letter addressed to Mr. Leo Pernburg, Frankfurt am Main,
sent by John Siders, G------, Josef Street 7.
Muller then hastened to the telegraph office and despatched a lengthy
telegram to the postal authorities in Frankfurt am Main. When the answer
came to him next morning, he packed his grip and took the first express
train leaving G------. He first made a short visit, however, to Albert
Graumann’s cell in the prison. Muller was much too kind-hearted not to
relieve the anxiety of this man, to whom such mental strain might easily
prove fatal. He told Graumann that he was going in search of evidence
which might throw light on the death of Siders, and comforted the
prisoner with the assurance that he, Muller, believed Graumann innocent,
and believed also that within a day or two he would return to G-------- with
proofs that his belief was the right one.
Three days later Muller returned to Grunau and went at once to the
Graumann home. It was quite late when he arrived, but he had already
notified Miss Roemer by telegram as to his coming, with a request that
she should be ready to see him. He found her waiting for him, pale and
anxious-eyed, when he arrived. “I have been to Frankfurt am Main,” he
said, “and I have seen Mr. Pernburg--”
“Yes, yes, that is the name; now I remember,” interrupted the girl
eagerly. “That is the name of John’s friend there.”
“I have seen Mr. Pernburg and he gave me this letter.” Muller laid a
thick envelope on the girl’s lap.
She looked down at it, her eyes widening as if she had seen a ghost.
“That--that is John’s writing,” she exclaimed in a hoarse whisper.
“Where did it come from?”
“Pernburg gave it to me. The day before his death John Siders sent him
this letter, requesting that Pernburg forward it to you before a certain
date. When I explained the circumstances to Mr. Pernburg, he gave me the
letter at once. I feel that this paper holds the clue to the mystery.
Will you open it?”
With trembling hands the girl tore open the envelope. It enclosed still
another sealed envelope, without an address. But there was a sheet of
paper around this letter, on which was written the following:
My beloved Eleonore:
Before you read what I have to say to you here I want you to promise
me, in memory of our love and by your hope of future salvation, that you
will do what I ask you to do.
I ask you to give the enclosed letter, although it is addressed to you,
to the Judge who will preside in the trial against Graumann. The letter
is written to you and will be given back to you. For you, the beloved of
my soul, you are the only human being with whom I can still communicate,
to whom I can still express my wishes. But you must not give the letter
to the Judge until you have assured yourself that the prosecuting
attorney insists upon Graumann’s guilt. In case he is acquitted, which I
do not think probable, then open this letter in the presence of Graumann
himself and one or two witnesses. For I wish Graumann, who is innocent,
to be able to prove his innocence.
You will know by this time that I have determined to end my life by my
own hand. Forgive me, beloved. I cannot live on without you--without
the honour of which I was robbed so unjustly.
God bless you.
One who will love you even beyond the grave, Remember your promise. It
was given to the dead.