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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Case of the Registered Letter
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Joe Muller Detective Story:
+#3 in our series by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+Being the Account of Some Adventures in the Professional
+Experience of a Member of the Imperial Austrian Police
+
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+The Case of the Registered Letter
+
+by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+July, 1999  [Etext #1833]
+[Date last updated: March 20, 2005]
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Case of the Registered Letter
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+This Etext prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.
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+
+The Case of the Registered Letter
+
+by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION TO JOE MULLER
+
+Joseph Muller, Secret Service detective of the Imperial Austrian
+police, is one of the great experts in his profession.  In
+personality he differs greatly from other famous detectives.  He
+has neither the impressive authority of Sherlock Holmes, nor the
+keen brilliancy of Monsieur Lecoq.  Muller is a small, slight,
+plain-looking man, of indefinite age, and of much humbleness of
+mien.  A naturally retiring, modest disposition, and two external
+causes are the reasons for Muller's humbleness of manner, which
+is his chief characteristic.  One cause is the fact that in early
+youth a miscarriage of justice gave him several years in prison,
+an experience which cast a stigma on his name and which made it
+impossible for him, for many years after, to obtain honest
+employment.  But the world is richer, and safer, by Muller's
+early misfortune.  For it was this experience which threw him
+back on his own peculiar talents for a livelihood, and drove him
+into the police force.  Had he been able to enter any other
+profession, his genius might have been stunted to a mere pastime,
+instead of being, as now, utilised for the public good.  
+
+Then, the red tape and bureaucratic etiquette which attaches to
+every governmental department, puts the secret service men of the
+Imperial police on a par with the lower ranks of the subordinates.
+Muller's official rank is scarcely much higher than that of a
+policeman, although kings and councillors consult him and the
+Police Department realises to the full what a treasure it has in
+him.  But official red tape, and his early misfortune ... prevent
+the giving of any higher official standing to even such a genius.
+Born and bred to such conditions, Muller understands them, and
+his natural modesty of disposition asks for no outward honours,
+asks for nothing but an income sufficient for his simple needs,
+and for aid and opportunity to occupy himself in the way he most
+enjoys.
+
+Joseph Muller's character is a strange mixture.  The
+kindest-hearted man in the world, he is a human bloodhound when
+once the lure of the trail has caught him.  He scarcely eats or
+sleeps when the chase is on, he does not seem to know human
+weakness nor fatigue, in spite of his frail body.  Once put on
+a case his mind delves and delves until it finds a clue, then
+something awakes within him, a spirit akin to that which holds
+the bloodhound nose to trail, and he will accomplish the apparently
+impossible, he will track down his victim when the entire machinery
+of a great police department seems helpless to discover anything.
+The high chiefs and commissioners grant a condescending permission
+when Muller asks, "May I do this?  ... or may I handle this case
+this way?" both parties knowing all the while that it is a farce,
+and that the department waits helpless until this humble little
+man saves its honour by solving some problem before which its
+intricate machinery has stood dazed and puzzled.
+
+This call of the trail is something that is stronger than anything
+else in Muller's mentality, and now and then it brings him into
+conflict with the department, ... or with his own better nature.
+Sometimes his unerring instinct discovers secrets in high places,
+secrets which the Police Department is bidden to hush up and leave
+untouched.  Muller is then taken off the case, and left idle for
+a while if he persists in his opinion as to the true facts.  And
+at other times, Muller's own warm heart gets him into trouble.  He
+will track down his victim, driven by the power in his soul which
+is stronger than all volition; but when he has this victim in the
+net, he will sometimes discover him to be a much finer, better man
+than the other individual, whose wrong at this particular criminal's
+hand set in motion the machinery of justice.  Several times that
+has happened to Muller, and each time his heart got the better of
+his professional instincts, of his practical common-sense, too,
+perhaps, ... at least as far as his own advancement was concerned,
+and he warned the victim, defeating his own work.  This peculiarity
+of Muller's character caused his undoing at last, his official
+undoing that is, and compelled his retirement from the force.  But
+his advice is often sought unofficially by the Department, and to
+those who know, Muller's hand can be seen in the unravelling of
+many a famous case.
+
+The following stories are but a few of the many interesting cases
+that have come within the experience of this great detective.
+But they give a fair portrayal of Muller's peculiar method of
+working, his looking on himself as merely an humble member of the
+Department, and the comedy of his acting under "official orders"
+when the Department is in reality following out his directions.
+
+
+
+
+THE CASE OF THE REGISTERED LETTER
+
+by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+
+
+"Oh, sir, save him if you can--save my poor nephew!  I know he is
+innocent!"
+
+The little old lady sank back in her chair, gazing up at Commissioner
+von Riedau with tear-dimmed eyes full of helpless appeal.  The
+commissioner looked thoughtful.  "But the case is in the hands of
+the local authorities, Madam," he answered gently, a strain of pity
+in his voice.  "I don't exactly see how we could interfere."
+
+"But they believe Albert guilty!  They haven't given him a chance!"
+
+"He cannot be sentenced without sufficient proof of his guilt."
+
+"But the trial, the horrible trial--it will kill him--his heart
+is weak.  I thought--I thought you might send some one--some one
+of your detectives--to find out the truth of the case.  You must
+have the best people here in Vienna.  Oh, my poor Albert--"
+
+Her voice died away in a suppressed sob, and she covered her face
+to keep back the tears.
+
+The commissioner pressed a bell on his desk.  "Is Detective Joseph
+Muller anywhere about the building?" he asked of the attendant who
+appeared at the door.
+
+"I think he is, sir.  I saw him come in not long ago."
+
+"Ask him to come up to this room.  Say I would like to speak to him."
+The attendant went out.
+
+"I have sent for one of the best men on our force, Madam," continued
+the commissioner, turning back to the pathetic little figure in the
+chair.  "We will go into this matter a little more in detail and see
+if it is possible for us to interfere with the work of the local,
+authorities in G--."
+
+The little old lady gave her eyes a last hasty dab with a dainty
+handkerchief and raised her head again, fighting for self-control.
+She was a quaint little figure, with soft grey hair drawn back
+smoothly from a gentle-featured face in which each wrinkle seemed
+the seal of some loving thought for others.  Her bonnet and gown
+were of excellent material in delicate soft colours, but cut in the
+style of an earlier decade.  The capable lines of her thin little
+hands showed through the fabric of her grey gloves.  Her whole
+attitude bore the impress of one who had adventured far beyond the
+customary routine of her home circle, adventured out into the world
+in fear and trembling, impelled by the stress of a great love.
+
+A knock was heard at the door, and a small, slight man, with a kind,
+smooth-shaven face, entered at the commissioner's call.  "You sent
+for me, sir?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, Muller, there is a matter here in which I need your advice,
+your assistance, perhaps.  This is Detective Muller, Miss--" (the
+commissioner picked up the card on his desk) "Miss Graumann.  If
+you will tell us now, more in detail, all that you can tell us about
+this case, we may be able to help you."
+
+"Oh, if you would," murmured Miss Graumann, with something more of
+hope in her voice.  The expression of sympathetic interest on the
+face of the newcomer had already won her confidence for him.  Her
+slight figure straightened up in the chair, and the two men sat down
+opposite her, prepared to listen to her story.
+
+"I will tell you all I know and understand about this matter,
+gentlemen," she began.  "My name is Babette Graumann, and I live
+with my nephew, Albert Graumann, engineering expert, in the village
+of Grunau, which is not far from the city of G--.  My nephew Albert,
+the dearest, truest--" sobs threatened to overcome her again, but
+she mastered them bravely.  "Albert is now in prison, accused of
+the murder of his friend, John Siders, in the latter's lodgings
+in G--."
+
+"Yes, that is the gist of what you have already told me," said the
+commissioner.  "Muller, Miss Graumann believes her nephew innocent,
+contrary to the opinion of the local authorities in G--.  She has
+come to ask for some one from here who could ferret out the truth
+of this matter.  You are free now, and if we find that it can be
+done without offending the local authorities--"
+
+"Who is the commissioner in charge of the case in G--?" asked Muller.
+
+"Commissioner Lange is his name, I believe," replied Miss Graumann.
+
+"H'm!" Muller and the commissioner exchanged glances.
+
+"I think we can venture to hear more of this," said the commissioner,
+as if in answer to their unspoken thought.  "Can you give us the
+details now, Madam?  Who is, or rather who was, this John Siders?"
+
+"John Siders came to our village a little over a year ago," continued
+Miss Graumann.  "He came from Chicago; he told us, although he was
+evidently a German by birth.  He bought a nice little piece of
+property, not far from our home, and settled down there.  He was a
+quiet man and made few friends, but he seemed to take to Albert and
+came to see us frequently.  Albert had spent some years in America,
+in Chicago, and Siders liked to talk to him about things and people
+there.  But one day Siders suddenly sold his property and moved to G--.
+Two weeks later he was found dead in his lodgings in the city,
+murdered, and now--now they have accused Albert of the crime."
+
+"On what grounds?--oh, I beg your pardon, sir; I did not mean--"
+
+"That's all right, Muller," said the commissioner.  "As you may
+have to undertake the case, you might as well begin to do the
+questioning now."
+
+"They say"--Miss Graumann's voice quavered--"they say that Albert
+was the last person known to have been in Siders' room; they say that
+it was his revolver, found in the room.  That is the dreadful part
+of it--it was his revolver.  He acknowledges it, but he did not
+know, until the police showed it to him, that the weapon was not in
+its usual place in his study.  They tell me that everything speaks
+for his guilt, but I cannot believe it--I cannot.  He says he is
+innocent in spite of everything.  I believe him.  I brought him up,
+sir; I was like his own mother to him.  He never knew any other
+mother.  He never lied to me, not once, when he was a little boy,
+and I don't believe he'd lie to me now, now that he's a man of
+forty-five.  He says he did not kill John Siders.  Oh, I know, even
+without his saying it, that he would not do such a thing."
+
+"Can you tell us anything more about the murder itself?" questioned
+Muller gently.  "Is there any possibility of suicide?  Or was there
+a robbery?"
+
+"They say it was no suicide, sir, and that there was a large sum of
+money missing.  But why should Albert take any one else's money?
+He has money of his own, and he earns a good income besides--we
+have all that we need.  Oh, it is some dreadful mistake!  There is
+the newspaper account of the discovery of the body.  Perhaps Mr.
+Muller might like to read that."  She pointed to a sheet of newspaper
+on the desk.  The commissioner handed it to Muller.  It was an
+evening paper, dated G--, September 24th, and it gave an elaborate
+account, in provincial journalese, of the discovery that morning of
+the body of John Siders, evidently murdered, in his lodgings.  The
+main facts to be gathered from the long-winded story were as follows:
+
+John Siders had rented the rooms in which he met his death about
+ten days before, paying a month's rent in advance.  The lodgings
+consisted of two rooms in a little house in a quiet street.  It was
+a street of simple two-story, one and two family dwellings, occupied
+by artisans and small tradespeople.  There were many open spaces,
+gardens and vacant lots in the street.  The house in which Siders
+lodged belonged to a travelling salesman by the name of Winter.  The
+man was away from home a great deal, and his wife, with her child
+and an old servant, lived in the lower part of the house, while the
+rooms occupied by Siders were in the upper story.  Siders lived
+very quietly, going out frequently in the afternoon, but returning
+early in the evening.  He had said to his landlady that he had many
+friends in G--.  But during the time of his stay in the house he had
+had but one caller, a gentleman who came on the evening of the 23rd
+of September.  The old maid had opened the door for him and showed
+him to Mr. Siders' rooms.  She described this visitor as having a
+full black beard, and wearing a broad-brimmed grey felt hat.  Nobody
+saw the man go out, for the old maid, the only person in the house
+at the time, had retired early.  Mrs. Winter and her little girl
+were spending the night with the former's mother in a distant part
+of the city.  The next morning the old servant, taking the lodger's
+coffee up to him at the usual hour, found him dead on the floor of
+his sitting-room, shot through the heart.  The woman ran screaming
+from the house and alarmed the neighbours.  A policeman at the
+corner heard the noise, and led the crowd up to the room where the
+dead man lay.  It was plain to be seen that this was not a case of
+suicide.  Everywhere were signs of a terrible struggle.  The
+furniture was overturned, the dressing-table and the cupboard were
+open and their contents scattered on the floor, one of the window
+curtains was torn into strips, as if the victim had been trying to
+escape by way of the window, but had been dragged back into the
+room by his murderer.  An overturned ink bottle on the table had
+spattered wide, and added to the general confusion.  In the midst
+of the disorder lay the body of the murdered man, now cold in the
+rigour of death.
+
+The police commissioner arrived soon, took possession of the rooms,
+and made a thorough examination of the premises.  A letter found
+on the desk gave another proof, if such were needed, that this was
+not a case of suicide.  This letter was in the handwriting of the
+dead man, and read as follows:
+
+Dear Friend:
+
+I appreciate greatly all the kindness shown me by yourself and your
+good wife.  I have been more successful than I thought possible in
+overcoming the obstacles you know of.  Therefore, I shall be very
+glad to join you day after to-morrow, Sunday, in the proposed
+excursion.  I will call for you at 8 A.M.--the cab and the
+champagne will be my share of the trip.  We'll have a jolly day
+and drink a glass or two to our plans for the future.
+
+With best greetings for both of you,
+Your old friend,
+                                                     John
+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.
+                                                       JOHN.
+
+"Oh, what does it all mean?" asked Eleonora, dropping the letter
+in her lap.
+
+"It is as I thought," replied Muller.  "John Siders took his own
+life, but made every arrangement to have suspicion fall upon
+Graumann."
+
+"But why?  oh, why?"
+
+"It was a terrible revenge.  But perhaps--perhaps it was just
+retribution.  Graumaun would not understand that Siders could have
+been suspected of, and imprisoned for, a theft he had not committed.
+He must know now that it is quite possible for a man to be in danger
+of sentence of death even, for a crime of which he is innocent."
+
+"Oh, my God!  It is terrible."  The girl's head fell across her
+folded arms on the table.  Deep shuddering sobs shook her frame.
+
+Muller waited quietly until the first shock had passed.  Finally
+her sobs died away and she raised her head again.  "What am I to
+do?" she asked.
+
+"You must open this letter to-morrow in the presence of the Police
+Commissioner and Graumaun."
+
+"But this promise?  This promise that he asks of me--that I should
+wait until the trial?"
+
+"You have not given this promise.  Would you take it upon yourself
+to endanger your guardian's life still more?  Every further day
+spent in his prison, in this anxiety, might be fatal."
+
+"But this promise?  The promise demanded of me by the man to whom
+I had given my love?  Is it not my duty to keep it?"
+
+Muller rose from his chair.  His slight figure seemed to grow
+taller, and the gentleness in his voice gave way to a commanding
+tone of firm decision.
+
+"Our duty is to the living, not to the dead.  The dead have no right
+to drag down others after them.  Believe me, Miss Roemer, the
+purpose that was in your betrothed's mind when he ended his own
+life, has been fulfilled.  Albert Graumann knows now what are the
+feelings of a man who bears the prison stigma unjustly.  He will
+never again judge his fellow-men as harshly as he has done until
+now.  His soul has been purged in these terrible days; have you
+the right to endanger his life needlessly?"
+
+"Oh, I do not know!  I do not know what to do."
+
+"I have no choice," said Muller firmly.  "It is my duty to make
+known the fact to the Police Commissioner that there is such a
+letter in existence.  The Police Commissioner will then have to
+follow his duty in demanding the letter from you.  Mr. Pernburg,
+Sider's friend, saw this argument at once.  Although he also had
+a letter from the dead man, asking him to send the enclosure to
+you, registered, on a certain date, he knew that it was his duty
+to give all the papers to the authorities.  Would it not be better
+for you to give them up of your own free will?"  Muller took a
+step nearer the girl and whispered: "And would it not be a noble
+revenge on your part?  You would be indeed returning good for evil."
+
+Eleonora clasped her hands and her lips moved as if in silent
+prayer.  Then she rose slowly and held out the letters to Muller.
+"Do what you will with them," she said.  "My strength is at an end."
+
+The next day, in the presence of Commissioner Lange and of the
+accused Albert Graumann, Muller opened the letter which he had
+received from Miss Roemer and read it aloud.  The girl herself,
+by her own request, was not present.  Both Muller and Graumann
+understood that the strain of this message from the dead would
+be too much for her to bear.  This was the letter:
+
+                                              G.-- September 21st.
+
+My beloved:
+
+When you put this letter in the hands of the Judge, I will have
+found in death the peace that I could never find on earth.  There
+was no chance of happiness for me since I have realised that I love
+you, that you love me, and that I must give you up if I am to remain
+what I have always been--in spite of everything--a man of honour.
+
+Albert Graumann would keep his word, this I know.  Wherever you
+might follow me as my wife, there his will would have been before
+us, blasting my reputation, blackening the flame which you were to
+bear.
+
+I could not have endured it.  My soul was sick of all this secrecy,
+sick at the injustice of mankind.  In spite of worldly success, my
+life was cold and barren in the strange land to which I had fled.
+My home called to me and I came back to it.
+
+I kissed the earth of my own country, and I wept at my mother's
+grave.  I was happy again under the skies which had domed above my
+childhood.  For I am an honest man, beloved, and I always have been.
+
+One day I sat at table beside the man--the Judge who condemned me,
+here in G-- in those terrible days.  He naturally did not know me
+again.  I, myself, brought the conversation around to a professional
+subject.  I asked him if it were not possible that circumstantial
+evidence could lie; if the entire past, the reputation of the
+accused would not be a factor in his favour.  The Judge denied it.
+It was his opinion, beyond a doubt, that circumstantial evidence was
+sufficient to convict anyone.
+
+My soul rose within me.  This infallibility, this legal arrogance,
+aroused my blood.  "That man should have a lesson!"  I said to
+myself.
+
+But I had forgotten it all--all my anger, all my hatred and
+bitterness, when I met you.  I dare not trust myself to think of
+you too much, now that everything is arranged for the one last
+step.  It takes all my control to keep my decision unwavering while
+I sit here and tell you how much your love, your great tenderness,
+your sweet trust in me, meant to me.
+
+Let me talk rather of Albert Graumann.  I will forgive him for
+believing in my guilt, but I cannot forgive him that he, the man
+of cultivation and mental grasp, could not believe it possible for
+a convicted thief to have repented and to have lived an honest life
+after the atonement of his crime.  I still cannot believe that this
+was Graumann's opinion.  I am forced to think that it was an excuse
+only on his part, an excuse to keep us apart, an excuse to keep you
+for himself.
+
+You are lost to me now.  There is nothing more in life for me.  If
+the injustice of mankind has stained my honour beyond repair, has
+robbed me of every chance of happiness at any time and in any place,
+then I die easily, beloved, for there is little charm in such a
+life as would be mine after this.
+
+But I do not wish to die quite in vain.  There are two men who have
+touched my life, who need the lesson my death can teach them.  These
+men are Albert Graumann and the prosecuting attorney Gustav Schmidt,
+the man who once condemned me so cruelly.  His present position
+would make him the representative of the state in a murder trial,
+and I know his opinions too well not to foresee that he would declare
+Graumann guilty because of the circumstantial evidence which will be
+against him.  My letter, given to the Presiding Judge after the
+Attorney has made his speech, will cause him humiliation, will ruin
+his brilliant arguments and cast ridicule upon him.
+
+Do not think me hard or revengeful.  I do not hate anyone now that
+death is so near.  But is it inhuman that I should want to teach
+these two men a lesson?  a lesson which they need, believe me, and
+it is such a slight compensation for the torture these last eight
+years have been to me!
+
+And now I will explain in detail all the circumstances.  I have
+arranged that Albert Graumann shall come to me on the evening of
+September 23rd between 7 and 8 o'clock.  I asked him to do so by
+letter, asking him also to keep the fact of his visit to me a secret.
+To-night, the 22nd of September, I received his answer promising
+that he would come.  Therefore I can look upon everything that is
+to happen, as having already happened, for now there need be no
+further change in my plans.  I will send this letter this evening
+to my friend Pernburg in Frankfurt am Main.  In case anything should
+happen that would render impossible for me to carry out my plans,
+I will send Pernburg another letter asking him not to carry out
+the instructions of the first.
+
+I can now proceed to tell you what will happen here to-morrow
+evening, the 23rd of September.
+
+Albert Graumann will come to me, unknown to his family or friends,
+as I have asked him to come.  I will so arrange it that the old
+servant will see him come in but will not see him go out.  My
+landlady will not be in my way, for she has already told me that
+she will spend the night of the 23rd with her mother, in another
+part of the city.  It is to be a birthday celebration I believe,
+so that I can be certain her plans will not be changed.
+
+Graumann and I will be alone, therefore, with no reliable witnesses
+near.  I will keep him there for a little while with commonplace
+conversation, for I have nothing to say to him.  If he moves near
+the desk I will upset the inkbottle.  The spots on his clothes will
+be another evidence against him.  I will endeavour to get him to
+keep my jewelry which is, as you know, of considerable value.  I
+will tell him that I am going away for a while and ask him to take
+charge of it for me.  I, myself, will take him down to the door and
+let him out, when I have satisfied myself that the old servant is
+in bed or at least at the back of the house.  The revolver which
+shall end my misery is Graumann's property.  I took it from its
+place without his knowledge.
+
+The 10,000 gulden which I told my landlady were still in the house,
+and which would therefore be thought missing after my death, I have
+deposited in a bank in Frankfort in your name.  Here is the
+certificate of deposit.
+
+I will endeavour not to hold the revolver sufficiently close to have
+the powder burn my clothes.  And I will exert every effort of mind
+and body to throw it far from me after I have fired the fatal shot.
+I think that I will be able to do this, for I am a very good shot
+and I have no fear of death.  One thing more I will do, to turn
+aside all suspicion of suicide.  I will write a letter to some
+person who does not exist, a letter which will make it appear as if
+I were in excellent humour and planning for the future.
+
+And now, good-bye to life.  People have called me eccentric, they
+may be right.  This last deed of mine at least, is out of the
+ordinary.  No one will say now that ended my life in a moment of
+darkened mind, in a rush of despair.  My brain is perfectly clear,
+my heart beats calmly, now that I have arranged everything for my
+departure from this world of falsehood and unreality.  My last deed
+shall go to prove to the world how little actual, apparent facts
+can be trusted.
+
+The one thing real, the one thing true in all this world of
+falsehood was your love and your trust.  I thank you for it.
+
+                                                 THEODOR BELLMANN,
+                                                 known as
+                                                 JOHN SIDERS.
+
+Joseph Muller refuses to take any particular credit for this case.
+The letter would have come in time to prevent Graumann's conviction
+without his assistance, he says.  The only person whose gratitude he
+has a right to is Prosecuting Attorney Gustav Schmidt.  He managed
+to have the Police Commissioner in G-- read the letter in detail to
+the attorney.  But Muller himself knows that it failed of its effect,
+so far as that dignitary was concerned.  For nothing but open
+ridicule could ever convince a man of such decided opinions that he
+is not the one infallible person in the world.
+
+But Albert Graumann had learned his lesson.  And he told Muller
+himself that the few days of life which might remain to him were a
+gift to him from the detective.  He felt that his weak heart would
+not have stood the strain and the disgrace of an open trial, even
+if that trial ended in acquittal.  Two months later he was found
+dead in his bed, a calm smile on his lips.
+
+Before he died he had learned that it was the undaunted courage of
+his timid little old aunt that had brought Muller to take charge of
+the case and to free her beloved nephew from the dreaded prison.
+And the last days that these two passed together were very happy.
+
+But as aforesaid, Muller refuses to have this case included in the
+list of his successes.  He did not change the ultimate result, he
+merely anticipated it, he says.
+
+
+
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Case of the Registered Letter
+
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