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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Case of The Pool of Blood in the
+Pastor’s Study, by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Case of The Pool of Blood in the Pastor’s Study
+
+Author: Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+Posting Date: October 29, 2008 [EBook #1835]
+Release Date: July, 1999
+Last Updated: October 14, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOL OF BLOOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR’S STUDY
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+JOE MULLER: DETECTIVE
+
+
+
+
+THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR’S STUDY
+
+
+The sun rose slowly over the great bulk of the Carpathian mountains
+lying along the horizon, weird giant shapes in the early morning mist.
+It was still very quiet in the village. A cock crowed here and there,
+and swallows flew chirping close to the ground, darting swiftly about
+preparing for their higher flight. Janci the shepherd, apparently the
+only human being already up, stood beside the brook at the point where
+the old bridge spans the streamlet, still turbulent from the mountain
+floods. Janci was cutting willows to make his Margit a new basket.
+
+Once the shepherd raised his head from his work, for he thought he heard
+a loud laugh somewhere in the near distance. But all seemed silent and
+he turned back to his willows. The beauty of the landscape about him was
+much too familiar a thing that he should have felt or seen its
+charm. The violet hue of the distant woods, the red gleaming of the
+heather-strewn moor, with its patches of swamp from which the slow
+mist arose, the pretty little village with its handsome old church and
+attractive rectory--Janci had known it so long that he never stopped to
+realise how very charming, in its gentle melancholy, it all was.
+
+Also, Janci did not know that this little village of his home had once
+been a flourishing city, and that an invasion of the Turks had razed
+it to the ground leaving, as by a miracle, only the church to tell of
+former glories.
+
+The sun rose higher and higher. And now the village awoke to its daily
+life. Voices of cattle and noises of poultry were heard about the
+houses, and men and women began their accustomed round of tasks. Janci
+found that he had gathered enough willow twigs by this time. He tied
+them in a loose bundle and started on his homeward way.
+
+His path led through wide-stretching fields and vineyards past a little
+hill, some distance from the village, on which stood a large house. It
+was not a pleasant house to look at, not a house one would care to live
+in, even if one did not know its use, for it looked bare and repellant,
+covered with its ugly yellow paint, and with all the windows secured
+with heavy iron bars. The trees that surrounded it were tall and
+thick-foliaged, casting an added gloom over the forbidding appearance
+of the house. At the foot of the hill was a high iron fence, cutting off
+what lay behind it from all the rest of the world. For this ugly yellow
+house enclosed in its walls a goodly sum of hopeless human misery and
+misfortune. It was an insane asylum.
+
+For twenty years now, the asylum had stood on its hill, a source of
+superstitious terror to the villagers, but at the same time a source of
+added income. It meant money for them, for it afforded a constant and
+ever-open market for their farm products and the output of their home
+industry. But every now and then a scream or a harsh laugh would ring
+out from behind those barred windows, and those in the village who could
+hear, would shiver and cross themselves. Shepherd Janci had little fear
+of the big house. His little hut cowered close by the high iron gates,
+and he had a personal acquaintance with most of the patients, with all
+of the attendants, and most of all, with the kind elderly physician who
+was the head of the establishment. Janci knew them all, and had a kind
+word equally for all. But otherwise he was a silent man, living much
+within himself.
+
+When the shepherd reached his little home, his wife came to meet him
+with a call to breakfast. As they sat down at the table a shadow moved
+past the little window. Janci looked up. “Who was that?” asked Margit,
+looking up from her folded hands. She had just finished her murmured
+prayer.
+
+“Pastor’s Liska,” replied Janci indifferently, beginning his meal.
+(Liska was the local abbreviation for Elizabeth.)
+
+“In such a hurry?” thought the shepherd’s wife. Her curiosity would not
+let her rest. “I hope His Reverence isn’t ill again,” she remarked after
+a while. Janci did not hear her, for he was very busy picking a fly out
+of his milk cup.
+
+“Do you think Liska was going for the old man?” began Margit again after
+a few minutes.
+
+The “old man” was the name given by the people of the village, more as
+a term of endearment than anything else, to the generally loved and
+respected physician who was the head of the insane asylum. He had become
+general mentor and oracle of all the village and was known and loved by
+man, woman and child.
+
+“It’s possible,” answered Janci.
+
+“His Reverence didn’t look very well yesterday, or maybe the old
+housekeeper has the gout again.”
+
+Janci gave a grunt which might have meant anything. The shepherd was a
+silent man. Being alone so much had taught him to find his own thoughts
+sufficient company. Ten minutes passed in silence since Margit’s last
+question, then some one went past the window. There were two people this
+time, Liska and the old doctor. They were walking very fast, running
+almost. Margit sprang up and hurried to the door to look after them.
+
+Janci sat still in his place, but he had laid aside his spoon and with
+wide eyes was staring ahead of him, murmuring, “It’s the pastor this
+time; I saw him--just as I did the others.”
+
+“Shepherd, the inn-keeper wants to see you, there’s something the matter
+with his cow.” Count ---- a young man, came from the other direction
+and pushed in at the door past Margit, who stood there staring up the
+road.
+
+Janci was so deep in his own thoughts that he apparently did not hear
+the boy’s words. At all events he did not answer them, but himself asked
+an unexpected question--a question that was not addressed to the others
+in the room, but to something out and beyond them. It was a strange
+question and it came from the lips of a man whose mind was not with his
+body at that moment--whose mind saw what others did not see.
+
+“Who will be the next to go? And who will be our pastor now?”
+
+These were Janci’s words.
+
+“What are you talking about, shepherd? Is it another one of your
+visions?” exclaimed the young fellow who stood there before him. Janci
+rubbed his hands over his eyes and seemed to come down to earth with a
+start.
+
+“Oh, is that you, Ferenz? What do you want of me?”
+
+The boy gave his message again, and Janci nodded good-humouredly and
+followed him out of the house. But both he and his young companion were
+very thoughtful as they plodded along the way. The boy did not dare
+to ask any questions, for he knew that the shepherd was not likely to
+answer. There was a silent understanding among the villagers that no one
+should annoy Janci in any way, for they stood in a strange awe of him,
+although he was the most good-natured mortal under the sun.
+
+While the shepherd and the boy walked toward the inn, the old doctor and
+Liska had hurried onward to the rectory. They were met at the door by
+the aged housekeeper, who staggered down the path wringing her hands,
+unable to give voice to anything but inarticulate expressions of grief
+and terror. The rest of the household and the farm hands were gathered
+in a frightened group in the great courtyard of the stately rectory
+which had once been a convent building. The physician hurried up the
+stairs into the pastor’s apartments. These were high sunny and airy
+rooms with arched ceilings, deep window seats, great heavy doors and
+handsomely ornamented stoves. The simple modern furniture appeared still
+more plain and common-place by contrast with the huge spaces of the
+building.
+
+In one of the rooms a gendarme was standing beside the window. The man
+saluted the physician, then shrugged his shoulders with an expression of
+hopelessness. The doctor returned a silent greeting and passed through
+into the next apartment. The old man was paler than usual and his face
+bore an expression of pain and surprise, the same expression that showed
+in the faces of those gathered downstairs. The room he now entered was
+large like the others, the walls handsomely decorated, and every corner
+of it was flooded with sunshine. There were two men in this room, the
+village magistrate and the notary. Their expression, as they held out
+their hands to the doctor, showed that his coming brought great relief.
+And there was something else in the room, something that drew the eyes
+of all three of the men immediately after their silent greeting.
+
+This was a great pool of blood which lay as a hideous stain on the
+otherwise clean yellow-painted floor. The blood must have flowed from
+a dreadful wound, from a severed artery even, the doctor thought, there
+was such a quantity of it. It had already dried and darkened, making its
+terrifying ugliness the more apparent.
+
+“This is the third murder in two years,” said the magistrate in a low
+voice.
+
+“And the most mysterious of all of them,” added the clerk.
+
+“Yes, it is,” said the doctor. “And there is not a trace of the body,
+you say?--or a clue as to where they might have taken the dead--or dying
+man?”
+
+With these words he looked carefully around the room, but there was no
+more blood to be seen anywhere. Any spot would have been clearly visible
+on the light-coloured floor. There was nothing else to tell of the
+horrible crime that had been committed here, nothing but the great,
+hideous, brown-red spot in the middle of the room.
+
+“Have you made a thorough search for the body?” asked the doctor.
+
+The magistrate shook his head. “No, I have done nothing to speak of yet.
+We have been waiting for you. There is a gendarme at the gate; no one
+can go in or out without being seen.”
+
+“Very well, then, let us begin our search now.”
+
+The magistrate and his companion turned towards the door of the room but
+the doctor motioned them to come back. “I see you do not know the house
+as well as I do,” he said, and led the way towards a niche in the side
+of the wall, which was partially filled by a high bookcase.
+
+“Ah--that is the entrance of the passage to the church?” asked the
+magistrate in surprise.
+
+“Yes, this is it. The door is not locked.”
+
+“You mean you believe--”
+
+“That the murderers came in from the church? Why not? It is quite
+possible.”
+
+“To think of such a thing!” exclaimed the notary with a shake of his
+head.
+
+The doctor laughed bitterly. “To those who are planning a murder, a
+church is no more than any other place. There is a bolt here as you see.
+I will close this bolt now. Then we can leave the room knowing that no
+one can enter it without being seen.”
+
+The simple furniture of the study, a desk, a sofa, a couple of chairs
+and several bookcases, gave no chance of any hiding place either for the
+body of the victim or for the murderers. When the men left the room
+the magistrate locked the door and put the key in his own pocket. The
+gendarme in the neighbouring apartment was sent down to stand in the
+courtyard at the entrance to the house. The sexton, a little hunchback,
+was ordered to remain in the vestry at the other end of the passage from
+the church to the house.
+
+Then the thorough search of the house began. Every room in both stories,
+every corner of the attic and the cellar, was looked over thoroughly.
+The stable, the barns, the garden and even the well underwent a close
+examination. There was no trace of a body anywhere, not even a trail
+of blood, nothing which would give the slightest clue as to how the
+murderers had entered, how they had fled, or what they had done with
+their victim.
+
+The great gate of the courtyard was closed. The men, reinforced by the
+farm hands, entered the church, while Liska and the dairy-maids huddled
+in the servants’ dining-room in a trembling group around the old
+housekeeper. The search in the church as well as in the vestry was
+equally in vain. There was no trace to be found there any more than in
+the house.
+
+Meanwhile, during these hours of anxious seeking, the rumour of another
+terrible crime had spread through the village, and a crowd that grew
+from minute to minute gathered in front of the closed gates to the
+rectory, in front of the church, the closed doors of which did not open
+although it was a high feast day. The utter silence from the steeple,
+where the bells hung mute, added to the spreading terror. Finally the
+doctor came out from the rectory, accompanied by the magistrate, and
+announced to the waiting villagers that their venerable pastor had
+disappeared under circumstances which left no doubt that he had met his
+death at the hand of a murderer. The peasants listened in shuddering
+silence, the men pale-faced, the women sobbing aloud with frightened
+children hanging to their skirts. Then at the magistrate’s order, the
+crowd dispersed slowly, going to their homes, while a messenger set off
+to the near-by county seat.
+
+It was a weird, sad Easter Monday. Even nature seemed to feel the
+pressure of the brooding horror, for heavy clouds piled up towards noon
+and a chill wind blew fitfully from the north, bending the young corn
+and the creaking tree-tops, and moaning about the straw-covered roofs.
+Then an icy cold rain descended on the village, sending the children,
+the only humans still unconscious of the fear that had come on them all,
+into the houses to play quietly in the corner by the hearth.
+
+There was nothing else spoken of wherever two or three met together
+throughout the village except this dreadful, unexplainable thing
+that had happened in the rectory. The little village inn was full
+to overflowing and the hum of voices within was like the noise of an
+excited beehive. Everyone had some new explanation, some new guess, and
+it was not until the notary arrived, looking even more important than
+usual, that silence fell upon the excited throng. But the expectations
+aroused by his coming were not fulfilled. The notary knew no more than
+the others although he had been one of the searchers in the rectory.
+But he was in no haste to disclose his ignorance, and sat wrapped in a
+dignified silence until some one found courage to question him.
+
+“Was there nothing stolen?” he was asked.
+
+“No, nothing as far as we can tell yet. But if it was the gypsies--as
+may be likely--they are content with so little that it would not be
+noticed.”
+
+“Gypsies?” exclaimed one man scornfully. “It doesn’t have to be gypsies,
+we’ve got enough tramps and vagabonds of our own. Didn’t they kill the
+pedlar for the sake of a bag of tobacco, and old Katiza for a couple of
+hens?”
+
+“Why do you rake up things that happened twenty years ago?” cried
+another over the table. “You’d better tell us rather who killed Red
+Betty, and pulled Janos, the smith’s farm hand, down into the swamp?”
+
+“Yes, or who cut the bridge supports, when the brook was in flood, so
+that two good cows broke through and drowned?”
+
+“Yes, indeed, if we only knew what band of robbers and villains it is
+that is ravaging our village.”
+
+“And they haven’t stopped yet, evidently.”
+
+“This is the worst misfortune of all! What will our poor do now that
+they have murdered our good pastor, who cared for us all like a father?”
+
+“He gave all he had to the poor, he kept nothing for himself.”
+
+“Yes, indeed, that’s how it was. And now we can’t even give this good
+man Christian burial.”
+
+“Shepherd Janci knew this morning early that we were going to have a new
+pastor,” whispered the landlord in the notary’s ear. The latter looked
+up astonished. “Who said so?” he asked.
+
+“My boy Ferenz, who went to fetch him about seven o’clock. One of my
+cows was sick.”
+
+Ferenz was sent for and told his story. The men listened with
+great interest, and the smith, a broad-shouldered elderly man, was
+particularly eager to hear, as he had always believed in the shepherd’s
+power of second sight. The tailor, who was more modern-minded, laughed
+and made his jokes at this. But the smith laid one mighty hand on the
+other’s shoulder, almost crushing the tailor’s slight form under its
+weight, and said gravely: “Friend, do you be silent in this matter.
+You’ve come from other parts and you do not know of things that have
+happened here in days gone by. Janci can do more than take care of his
+sheep. One day, when my little girl was playing in the street, he said
+to me, ‘Have a care of Maruschka, smith!’ and three days later the child
+was dead. The evening before Red Betty was murdered he saw her in a
+vision lying in a coffin in front of her door. He told it to the sexton,
+whom he met in the fields; and next morning they found Betty dead. And
+there are many more things that I could tell you, but what’s the use;
+when a man won’t believe it’s only lost talk to try to make him. But
+one thing you should know: when Janci stares ahead of him without seeing
+what’s in front of him, then the whole village begins to wonder what’s
+going to happen, for Janci knows far more than all the rest of us put
+together.”
+
+The smith’s grave, deep voice filled the room and the others listened
+in a silence that gave assent to his words. He had scarcely finished
+speaking, however, when there was a noise of galloping hoofs and rapidly
+rolling wagon wheels. A tall brake drawn by four handsome horses dashed
+past in a whirlwind.
+
+“It’s the Count--the Count and the district judge,” said the landlord
+in a tone of respect. The notary made a grab at his hat and umbrella and
+hurried from the room. “That shows how much they thought of our pastor,”
+ continued the landlord proudly. “For the Count himself has come and
+with four horses, too, to get here the more quickly. His Reverence was a
+great friend of the Countess.”
+
+“They didn’t make so much fuss over the pedlar and Betty,” murmured
+the cobbler, who suffered from a perpetual grouch. But he followed the
+others, who paid their scores hastily and went out into the streets
+that they might watch from a distance at least what was going on in
+the rectory. The landlord bustled about the inn to have everything in
+readiness in case the gentlemen should honour him by taking a meal,
+and perhaps even lodgings, at his house. At the gate of the rectory the
+coachman and the maid Liska stood to receive the newcomers, just as five
+o’clock was striking from the steeple.
+
+It should have been still quite light, but it was already dusk, for the
+clouds hung heavy. The rain had ceased, but a heavy wind came up which
+tore the delicate petals of the blossoms from the fruit trees and
+strewed them like snow on the ground beneath. The Count, who was the
+head of one of the richest and most aristocratic families in Hungary,
+threw off his heavy fur coat and hastened up the stairs at the top of
+which his old friend and confidant, the venerable pastor, usually came
+to meet him. To-day it was only the local magistrate who stood there,
+bowing deeply.
+
+“This is incredible, incredible!” exclaimed the Count.
+
+“It is, indeed, sir,” said the man, leading the magnate through the
+dining-room into the pastor’s study, where, as far as could be seen, the
+murder had been committed. They were joined by the district judge, who
+had remained behind to give an order sending a carriage to the nearest
+railway station. The judge, too, was serious and deeply shocked, for he
+also had greatly admired and revered the old pastor. The stately rectory
+had been the scene of many a jovial gathering when the lord of the manor
+had made it a centre for a day’s hunting with his friends. The bearers
+of some of the proudest names in all Hungary had gathered in the
+high-arched rooms to laugh with the venerable pastor and to sample
+the excellent wines in his cellar. These wines, which the gentlemen
+themselves would send in as presents to the master of the rectory, would
+be carefully preserved for their own enjoyment. Not a landed proprietor
+for many leagues around but knew and loved the old pastor, who had now
+so strangely disappeared under such terrifying circumstances.
+
+“Well, we might as well begin our examination,” remarked the Count.
+“Although if Dr. Orszay’s sharp eyes did not find anything, I doubt very
+much if we will. You have asked the doctor to come here again, haven’t
+you?”
+
+“Yes, your Grace! As soon as I saw you coming I sent the sexton to the
+asylum.” Then the men went in again into the room which had been the
+scene of the mysterious crime. The wind rattled the open window and blew
+out its white curtains. It was already dark in the corners of the room,
+one could see but indistinctly the carvings of the wainscoting. The
+light backs of the books, or the gold letters on the darker bindings,
+made spots of brightness in the gloom. The hideous pool of blood in the
+centre of the floor was still plainly to be seen.
+
+“Judging by the loss of blood, death must have come quickly.”
+
+“There was no struggle, evidently, for everything in the room was in
+perfect order when we entered it.”
+
+“There is not even a chair misplaced. His Bible is there on the desk, he
+may have been preparing for to-day’s sermon.”
+
+“Yes, that is the case; because see, here are some notes in his
+handwriting.”
+
+The Count and Judge von Kormendy spoke these sentences at intervals as
+they made their examination of the room. The local magistrate was able
+to answer one or two simpler questions, but for the most part he could
+only shrug his shoulders in helplessness. Nothing had been seen or heard
+that was at all unusual during the night in the rectory. When the old
+housekeeper was called up she could say nothing more than this. Indeed,
+it was almost impossible for the old woman to say anything, her voice
+choked with sobs at every second word. None of the household force had
+noticed anything unusual, or could remember anything at all that would
+throw light on this mystery.
+
+“Well, then, sir, we might just as well sit down and wait for the
+detective’s arrival,” said the judge.
+
+“You are waiting for some one besides the doctor?” asked the local
+magistrate timidly.
+
+“Yes, His Grace telegraphed to Budapest,” answered the district judge,
+looking at his watch. “And if the train is on time, the man we are
+waiting for ought to be here in an hour. You sent the carriage to the
+station, didn’t you? Is the driver reliable?”
+
+“Yes, sir, he is a dependable man,” said the old housekeeper.
+
+Dr. Orszay entered the room just then and the Count introduced him to
+the district judge, who was still a stranger to him.
+
+“I fear, Count, that our eyes will serve but little in discovering the
+truth of this mystery,” said the doctor.
+
+The nobleman nodded. “I agree with you,” he replied. “And I have sent
+for sharper eyes than either yours or mine.”
+
+The doctor looked his question, and the Count continued: “When the news
+came to me I telegraphed to Pest for a police detective, telling them
+that the case was peculiar and urgent. I received an answer as I stopped
+at the station on my way here. This is it: ‘Detective Joseph Muller from
+Vienna in Budapest by chance. Have sent him to take your case.’”
+
+“Muller?” exclaimed Dr. Orszay. “Can it be the celebrated Muller, the
+most famous detective of the Austrian police? That would indeed be a
+blessing.”
+
+“I hope and believe that it is,” said the Count gravely. “I have heard
+of this man and we need such a one here that we may find the source of
+these many misfortunes which have overwhelmed our peaceful village for
+two years past. It is indeed a stroke of good luck that has led a man
+of such gifts into our neighbourhood at a time when he is so greatly
+needed. I believe personally that it is the same person or persons who
+have been the perpetrators of all these outrages and I intend once for
+all to put a stop to it, let it cost what it may.”
+
+“If any one can discover the truth it will be Muller,” said the district
+judge. “It was I who told the Count how fortunate we were that this man,
+who is known to the police throughout Austria and far beyond the borders
+of our kingdom, should have chanced to be in Budapest and free to come
+to us when we called. You and I”--he turned with a smile to the local
+magistrate--“you and I can get away with the usual cases of local
+brutality hereabouts. But the cunning that is at the bottom of these
+crimes is one too many for us.”
+
+The men had taken their places around the great dining-table. The old
+housekeeper had crept out again, her terror making her forget her usual
+hospitality. And indeed it would not have occurred to the guests to ask
+or even to wish for any refreshment. The maid brought a lamp, which sent
+its weak rays scarcely beyond the edges of the big table. The four men
+sat in silence for some time.
+
+“I suppose it would be useless to ask who has been coming and going from
+the rectory the last few days?” began the Count.
+
+“Oh, yes, indeed, sir,” said the district judge with a sigh. “For if
+this murderer is the same who committed the other crimes he must live
+here in or near the village, and therefore must be known to all and not
+likely to excite suspicion.”
+
+“I beg your pardon, sir,” put in the doctor. “There must be at least two
+of them. One man alone could not have carried off the farm hand who was
+killed to the swamp where his body was found. Nor could one man alone
+have taken away the bloody body of the pastor. Our venerable friend was
+a man of size and weight, as you know, and one man alone could not have
+dragged his body from the room without leaving an easily seen trail.”
+
+The judge blushed, but he nodded in affirmation to the doctor’s words.
+This thought had not occurred to him before. In fact, the judge was more
+notable for his good will and his love of justice rather than for his
+keen intelligence. He was as well aware of this as was any one else,
+and he was heartily glad that the Count had sent to the capital for
+reinforcements.
+
+Some time more passed in deep silence. Each of the men was occupied with
+his own thoughts. A sigh broke the silence now and then, and a slight
+movement when one or the other drew out his watch or raised his head to
+look at the door. Finally, the sound of a carriage outside was heard.
+The men sprang up.
+
+The driver’s voice was heard, then steps which ascended the stairs lowly
+and lightly, audible only because the stillness was so great.
+
+The door opened and a small, slight, smooth-shaven man with a gentle
+face and keen grey eyes stood on the threshold. “I am Joseph Muller,” he
+said with a low, soft voice.
+
+The four men in the room looked at him in astonishment.
+
+“This simple-looking individual is the man that every one is afraid of?”
+ thought the Count, as he walked forward and held out his hand to the
+stranger.
+
+“I sent for you, Mr. Muller,” said the magnate, conscious of his stately
+size and appearance, as well as of his importance in the presence of a
+personage who so little looked what his great fame might have led one to
+expect.
+
+“Then you are Count ----?” answered Muller gently. “I was in Budapest,
+having just finished a difficult case which took me there. They told me
+that a mysterious crime had happened in your neighbourhood, and sent me
+here to take charge of it. You will pardon any ignorance I may show as a
+stranger to this locality. I will do my best and it may be possible that
+I can help you.”
+
+The Count introduced the other gentlemen in order and they sat down
+again at the table.
+
+“And now what is it you want me for, Count?” asked Muller.
+
+“There was a murder committed in this house,” answered the Count.
+
+“When?”
+
+“Last night.”
+
+“Who is the victim?”
+
+“Our pastor.”
+
+“How was he killed?”
+
+“We do not know.”
+
+“You are not a physician, then?” asked Muller, turning to Orszay.
+
+“Yes, I am,” answered the latter.
+
+“Well?”
+
+“The body is missing,” said Orszay, somewhat sharply.
+
+“Missing?” Muller became greatly interested. “Will you please lead me to
+the scene of the crime?” he said, rising from his chair.
+
+The others led him into the next room, the magistrate going ahead with
+a lamp. The judge called for more lights and the group stood around the
+pool of blood on the floor of the study. Muller’s arms were crossed on
+his breast as he stood looking down at the hideous spot. There was no
+terror in his eyes, as in those of the others, but only a keen attention
+and a lively interest.
+
+“Who has been in this room since the discovery?” he asked.
+
+The doctor replied that only the servants of the immediate household,
+the notary, the magistrate, and himself, then later the Count and the
+district judge entered the room.
+
+“You are quite certain that no one else has been in here?”
+
+“No, no one else.”
+
+“Will you kindly send for the three servants?” The magistrate left the
+room.
+
+“Who else lives in the house?”
+
+“The sexton and the dairymaid.”
+
+“And no one else has left the house to-day or has entered it?”
+
+“No one. The main door has been watched all day by a gendarme.”
+
+“Is there but one door out of this room?”
+
+“No, there is a small door beside that bookcase.”
+
+“Where does it lead to?”
+
+“It leads to a passageway at the end of which there is a stair down into
+the vestry.”
+
+Muller gave an exclamation of surprise.
+
+“The vestry as well as the church have neither of them been opened on
+the side toward the street.”
+
+“The church or the vestry, you mean,” corrected Muller. “How many doors
+have they on the street side?”
+
+“One each.”
+
+“The locks on these doors were in good condition?”
+
+“Yes, they were untouched.”
+
+“Was there anything stolen from the church?”
+
+“No, nothing that we could see.”
+
+“Was the pastor rich?”
+
+“No, he was almost a poor man, for he gave away all that he had.”
+
+“But you were his patron, Count.”
+
+“I was his friend. He was the confidential adviser of myself and
+family.”
+
+“This would mean rich presents now and then, would it not?”
+
+“No, that is not the case. Our venerable pastor would take nothing for
+himself. He would accept no presents but gifts of money for his poor.”
+
+“Then you do not believe this to have been a murder for the sake of
+robbery?”
+
+“No. There was nothing disturbed in any part of the house, no drawers or
+cupboards broken open at all.”
+
+Muller smiled. “I have heard it said that your romantic Hungarian
+bandits will often be satisfied with the small booty they may find in
+the pocket or on the person of their victim.”
+
+“You are right, Mr. Muller. But that is only when they can find nothing
+else.”
+
+“Or perhaps if it is a case of revenge.
+
+“It cannot be revenge in this case!”
+
+“The pastor was greatly loved?”
+
+“He was loved and revered.”
+
+“By every one?”
+
+“By every one!” the four men answered at once.
+
+Muller was still a while. His eyes were veiled and his face thoughtful.
+Finally he raised his head. “There has been nothing moved or changed in
+this room?”
+
+“No--neither here nor anywhere else in the house or the church,”
+ answered the local magistrate.
+
+“That is good. Now I would like to question the servants.”
+
+Muller had already started for the door, then he turned back into
+the room and pointing toward the second door he asked: “Is that door
+locked?”
+
+“Yes,” answered the Count. “I found it locked when I examined it myself
+a short time ago.”
+
+“It was locked on the inside?”
+
+“Yes, locked on the inside.”
+
+“Very well. Then we have nothing more to do here for the time being. Let
+us go back into the dining-room.”
+
+The men returned to the dining-room, Muller last, for he stopped to lock
+the door of the study and put the key in his pocket. Then he began his
+examination of the servants.
+
+The old housekeeper, who, as usual, was the first to rise in the
+household, had also, as usual, rung the bell to waken the other
+servants. Then when Liska came downstairs she had sent her up to the
+pastor’s room. His bedroom was to the right of the dining-room.
+Liska had, as usual, knocked on the door exactly at seven o’clock and
+continued knocking for some few minutes without receiving any answer.
+Slightly alarmed, the girl had gone back and told the housekeeper that
+the pastor did not answer.
+
+Then the old woman asked the coachman to go up and see if anything
+was the matter with the reverend gentleman. The man returned in a few
+moments, pale and trembling in every limb and apparently struck dumb by
+fright. He motioned the women to follow him, and all three crept up
+the stairs. The coachman led them first to the pastor’s bed, which was
+untouched, and then to the pool of blood in his study. The sight of the
+latter frightened the servants so much that they did not notice at first
+that there was no sign of the pastor himself, whom they now knew must
+have been murdered. When they finally came to themselves sufficiently to
+take some action, the man hurried off to call the magistrate, and Liska
+ran to the asylum to fetch the old doctor; the pastor’s intimate friend.
+The aged housekeeper, trembling in fear, crept back to her own room and
+sat there waiting the return of the others.
+
+This was the story of the early morning as told by the three servants,
+who had already given their report in much the same words to the Count
+on his arrival and also to the magistrate. There was no reason to doubt
+the words of either the old housekeeper or of Janos, the coachman, who
+had served for more than twenty years in the rectory and whose fidelity
+was known. The girl Liska was scarcely eighteen, and her round childish
+face and big eyes dimmed with tears, corroborated her story. When they
+had told Muller all they knew, the detective sat stroking his chin, and
+looking thoughtfully at the floor. Then he raised his head and said,
+in a tone of calm friendliness: “Well, good friends, this will do for
+to-night. Now, if you will kindly give me a bite to eat and a glass of
+some light wine, I’d be very thankful. I have had no food since early
+this morning.”
+
+The housekeeper and the maid disappeared, and Janos went to the stable
+to harness the Count’s trap.
+
+The magnate turned to the detective. “I thank you once more that you
+have come to us. I appreciate it greatly that a stranger to our part of
+the country, like yourself, should give his time and strength to this
+problem of our obscure little village.”
+
+“There is nothing else calling me, sir,” answered Muller. “And the
+Budapest police will explain to headquarters at Vienna if I do not
+return at once.”
+
+“Do you understand our tongue sufficiently to deal with these people
+here?”
+
+“Oh, yes; there will be no difficulty about that. I have hunted
+criminals in Hungary before. And a case of this kind does not usually
+call for disguises in which any accent would betray one.”
+
+“It is a strange profession,” said the doctor.
+
+“One gets used to it--like everything else,” answered Muller, with a
+gentle smile. “And now I have to thank you gentlemen for your confidence
+in me.”
+
+“Which I know you will justify,” said the Count.
+
+Muller shrugged his shoulders: “I haven’t felt anything yet--but it will
+come--there’s something in the air.”
+
+The Count smiled at his manner of expressing himself, but all four
+of the men had already begun to feel sympathy and respect for this
+quiet-mannered little person whose words were so few and whose voice was
+so gentle. Something in his grey eyes and in the quiet determination of
+his manner made them realise that he had won his fame honestly. With the
+enthusiasm of his race the Hungarian Count pressed the detective’s hand
+in a warm grasp as he said: “I know that we can trust in you. You will
+avenge the death of my old friend and of those others who were killed
+here. The doctor and the magistrate will tell you about them to-morrow.
+We two will go home now. Telegraph us as soon as anything has happened.
+Every one in the village will be ready to help you and of course you can
+call on me for funds. Here is something to begin on.” With these words
+the Count laid a silk purse full of gold pieces on the table. One more
+pressure of the hand and he was gone. The other men also left the room,
+following the Count’s lead in a cordial farewell of the detective. They
+also shared the nobleman’s feeling that now indeed, with this man to
+help them, could the cloud of horror that had hung over the village for
+two years, and had culminated in the present catastrophe, be lifted.
+
+The excitement of the Count’s departure had died away and the steps of
+the other men on their way to the village had faded in the distance.
+There was nothing now to be heard but the rustling of the leaves and the
+creaking of the boughs as the trees bent before the onrush of the wind.
+Muller stood alone, with folded arms, in the middle of the large room,
+letting his sharp eyes wander about the circle of light thrown by the
+lamps. He was glad to be alone--for only when he was alone could his
+brain do its best work. He took up one of the lamps and opened the door
+to the room in which, as far as could be known, the murder had been
+committed. He walked in carefully and, setting the lamp on the desk,
+examined the articles lying about on it. There was nothing of importance
+to be found there. An open Bible and a sheet of paper with notes for the
+day’s sermon lay on top of the desk. In the drawers, none of which were
+locked, were official papers, books, manuscripts of former sermons, and
+a few unimportant personal notes.
+
+The flame of the lamp flickered in the breeze that came from the open
+window. But Muller did not close the casement. He wanted to leave
+everything just as he had found it until daylight. When he saw that it
+was impossible to leave the lamp there he took it up again and left the
+room.
+
+“What is the use of being impatient?” he said to himself. “If I move
+about in this poor light I will be sure to ruin some possible clue. For
+there must be some clue left here. It is impossible for even the most
+practiced criminal not to leave some trace of his presence.”
+
+The detective returned to the dining-room, locking the study door
+carefully behind him. The maid and the coachman returned, bringing in
+an abundant supper, and Muller sat down to do justice to the many good
+things on the tray. When the maid returned to take away the dishes
+she inquired whether she should put the guest chamber in order for the
+detective. He told her not to go to any trouble for his sake, that he
+would sleep in the bed in the neighbouring room.
+
+“You going to sleep in there?” said the girl, horrified.
+
+“Yes, my child, and I think I will sleep well to-night. I feel very
+tired.” Liska carried the things out, shaking her head in surprise at
+this thin little man who did not seem to know what it was to be afraid.
+Half an hour later the rectory was in darkness. Before he retired,
+Muller had made a careful examination of the pastor’s bedroom. Nothing
+was disturbed anywhere, and it was evident that the priest had not made
+any preparations for the night, but was still at work at his desk in
+the study when death overtook him. When he came to this conclusion, the
+detective went to bed and soon fell asleep.
+
+In his little hut near the asylum gates, shepherd Janci slept as sound
+as usual. But he was dreaming and he spoke in his sleep. There was no
+one to hear him, for his faithful Margit was snoring loudly. Snatches
+of sentences and broken words came from Janci’s lips: “The hand--the big
+hand--I see it--at his throat--the face--the yellow face--it laughs--”
+
+Next morning the children on their way to school crept past the rectory
+with wide eyes and open mouths. And the grown people spoke in lower
+tones when their work led them past the handsome old house. It had once
+been their pride, but now it was a place of horror to them. The old
+housekeeper had succumbed to her fright and was very ill. Liska went
+about her work silently, and the farm servants walked more heavily and
+chattered less than they had before. The hump-backed sexton, who had not
+been allowed to enter the church and therefore had nothing to do, made
+an early start for the inn, where he spent most of the day telling what
+little he knew to the many who made an excuse to follow him there.
+
+The only calm and undisturbed person in the rectory household was
+Muller. He had made a thorough examination of the entire scene of the
+murder, but had not found anything at all. Of one thing alone was he
+certain: the murderer had come through the hidden passageway from the
+church. There were two reasons to believe this, one of which might
+possibly not be sufficient, but the other was conclusive.
+
+The heavy armchair before the desk, the chair on which the pastor was
+presumably sitting when the murderer entered, was half turned around,
+turned in just such a way as it would have been had the man who was
+sitting there suddenly sprung up in excitement or surprise. The chair
+was pushed back a step from the desk and turned towards the entrance
+to the passageway. Those who had been in the room during the day had
+reported that they had not touched any one of the articles of furniture,
+therefore the position of the chair was the same that had been given it
+by the man who had sat in it, by the murdered pastor himself.
+
+Of course there was always the possibility that some one had moved the
+chair without realising it. This clue, therefore, could not be looked
+upon as an absolutely certain one had it stood alone. But there was
+other evidence far more important. The great pool of blood was just
+half-way between the door of the passage and the armchair. It was here,
+therefore, that the attack had taken place. The pastor could not have
+turned in this direction in the hope of flight, for there was nothing
+here to give him shelter, no weapon that he could grasp, not even
+a cane. He must have turned in this direction to meet and greet the
+invader who had entered his room in this unusual manner. Turned to meet
+him as a brave man would, with no other weapon than the sacredness of
+his calling and his age.
+
+But this had not been enough to protect the venerable priest. The
+murderer must have made his thrust at once and his victim had sunk down
+dying on the floor of the room in which he had spent so many hours of
+quiet study, in which he had brought comfort and given advice to so many
+anxious hearts; for dying he must have been--it would be impossible for
+a man to lose so much blood and live.
+
+“The struggle,” thought the detective, “but was there a struggle?” He
+looked about the room again, but could see nothing that showed disorder
+anywhere in its immaculate neatness. No, there could have been no
+struggle. It must have been a quick knife thrust and death at once. “Not
+a shot?” No, a shot would have been heard by the night watchman walking
+the streets near the church. The night was quiet, the window open. Some
+one in the village would have heard the noise of a shot. And it was not
+likely that the old housekeeper who slept in the room immediately below,
+slept the light sleep of the aged would have failed to have heard the
+firing of a pistol.
+
+Muller took a chair and sat down directly in front of the pool of blood,
+looking at it carefully. Suddenly he bowed his head deeper. He had
+caught sight of a fine thread of the red fluid which had been drawn
+out for about a foot or two in the direction towards the door to the
+dining-room. What did that mean? Did it mean that the murderer went out
+through that door, dragging something after him that made this delicate
+line? Muller bent down still deeper. The sun shone brightly on the
+floor, sending its clear rays obliquely through the window. The sharp
+eyes which now covered every inch of the yellow-painted floor discovered
+something else. They discovered that this red thread curved slightly and
+had a continuation in a fine scratch in the paint of the floor. Muller
+followed up this scratch and it led him over towards the window and then
+back again in wide curves, then out again under the desk and finally,
+growing weaker and weaker, it came back to the neighbourhood of the pool
+of blood, but on the opposite side of it. Muller got down on his hands
+and knees to follow up the scratch. He did not notice the discomfort of
+his position, his eyes shone in excitement and a deep flush glowed in
+his cheeks. Also, he began to whistle softly.
+
+Joseph Muller, the bloodhound of the Austrian police, had found a clue,
+a clue that soon would bring him to the trail he was seeking. He did not
+know yet what he could do with his clue. But this much he knew; sooner
+or later this scratch in the floor would lead him to the murderer. The
+trail might be long and devious; but he would follow it and at its end
+would be success. He knew that this scratch had been made after the
+murder was committed; this was proved by the blood that marked its
+beginning. And it could not have been made by any of those who entered
+the room during the day because by that time the blood had dried. This
+strange streak in the floor, with its weird curves and spirals, could
+have been made only by the murderer. But how? With what instrument?
+There was the riddle which must be solved.
+
+And now Muller, making another careful examination of the floor, found
+something else. It was something that might be utterly unimportant or
+might be of great value. It was a tiny bit of hardened lacquer which he
+found on the floor beside one of the legs of the desk. It was rounded
+out, with sharp edges, and coloured grey with a tiny zigzag of yellow
+on its surface. Muller lifted it carefully and looked at it keenly.
+This tiny bit of lacquer had evidently been knocked off from some convex
+object, but it was impossible to tell at the moment just what sort of an
+object it might have been. There are so many different things which are
+customarily covered with lacquer. However, further examination brought
+him down to a narrower range of subjects. For on the inside of the
+lacquer he found a shred of reddish wood fibre. It must have been a
+wooden object, therefore, from which the lacquer came, and the wood had
+been of reddish tinge.
+
+Muller pondered the matter for a little while longer. Then he placed his
+discovery carefully in the pastor’s emptied tobacco-box, and dropped
+the box in his own pocket. He closed the window and the door to the
+dining-room, lit a lamp, and entered the passageway leading to the
+vestry. It was a short passageway, scarcely more than a dozen paces
+long.
+
+The walls were whitewashed, the floor tiled and the entire passage shone
+in neatness. Muller held the light of his lamp to every inch of it, but
+there was nothing to show that the criminal had gone through here with
+the body of his victim.
+
+“The criminal”--Muller still thought of only one. His long experience
+had taught him that the most intricate crimes were usually committed by
+one man only. The strength necessary for such a crime as this did not
+deceive him either. He knew that in extraordinary moments extraordinary
+strength will come to the one who needs it.
+
+He now passed down the steps leading into the vestry. There was no trace
+of any kind here either. The door into the vestry was not locked. It was
+seldom locked, they had told him, for the vestry itself was closed by
+a huge carved portal with a heavy ornamented iron lock that could be
+opened only with the greatest noise and trouble. This door was locked
+and closed as it had been since yesterday morning. Everything in the
+vestry was in perfect order; the priest’s garments and the censers
+all in their places. Muller assured himself of this before he left the
+little room. He then opened the glass door that led down by a few steps
+into the church.
+
+It was a beautiful old church, and it was a rich church also. It was
+built in the older Gothic style, and its heavy, broad-arched walls, its
+massive columns would have made it look cold and bare had not handsome
+tapestries, the gift of the lady of the manor, covered the walls. Fine
+old pictures hung here and there above the altars, and handsome stained
+glass windows broke the light that fell into the high vaulted interior.
+There were three great altars in the church, all of them richly
+decorated. The main altar stood isolated in the choir. In the open space
+behind it was the entrance to the crypt, now veiled in a mysterious
+twilight. Heavy silver candlesticks, three on a side, stood on the
+altar. The pale gold of the tabernacle door gleamed between them.
+
+Muller walked through the silent church, in which even his light
+steps resounded uncannily. He looked into each of the pews, into the
+confessionals, he walked around all the columns, he climbed up into the
+pulpit, he did everything that the others had done before him yesterday.
+And as with them, he found nothing that would indicate that the murderer
+had spent any time in the church. Finally he turned back once more to
+the main altar on his way out. But he did not leave the church as he
+intended. His last look at the altar had showed him something that
+attracted his attention and he walked up the three steps to examine it
+more closely.
+
+What he had seen was something unusual about one of the silver
+candlesticks. These candlesticks had three feet, and five of them were
+placed in such a way that the two front feet were turned toward the
+spectator. But on the end candlestick nearest Muller the single foot
+projected out to the front of the altar. This candlestick therefore had
+been set down hastily, not placed carefully in the order of things as
+were the others.
+
+And not only this. The heavy wax candle which was in the candlestick
+was burned down about a finger’s breadth more than the others, for
+these were all exactly of a height. Muller bent still nearer to the
+candlestick, but he saw that the dim light in the church was not
+sufficient. He went to one of the smaller side altars, took a candle
+from there, lit it with one of the matches that he found in his own
+pocket and returned with the burning candle to the main altar. The steps
+leading up to this altar were covered by a large rug with a white ground
+and a pattern of flowers. Looking carefully at it the detective saw a
+tiny brown spot, the mark of a burn, upon one of the white surfaces.
+Beside it lay a half used match.
+
+Walking around this carefully, Muller approached the candlestick that
+interested him and holding up his light he examined every inch of its
+surface. He found what he was looking for. There were dark red spots
+between the rough edges of the silver ornamentation.
+
+“Then the body is somewhere around here,” thought the detective and came
+down from the steps, still holding the burning candle.
+
+He walked slowly to the back of the altar. There was a little table
+there such as held the sacred dishes for the communion service, and the
+little carpet-covered steps which the sexton put out for the pastor when
+he took the monstrance from the high-built tabernacle. That was all that
+was to be seen in the dark corner behind the altar. Holding his candle
+close to the floor Muller discovered an iron ring fastened to one of the
+big stone flags. This must be the entrance to the crypt.
+
+Muller tried to raise the flag and was astonished to find how easily
+it came up. It was a square of reddish marble, the same with which the
+entire floor of the church was tiled. This flag was very thin and could
+easily be raised and placed back against the wall. Muller took up his
+candle, too greatly excited to stop to get a stick for it. He felt
+assured that now he would soon be able to solve at least a part of the
+mystery. He climbed down the steps carefully and found that they led
+into the crypt as he supposed. They were kept spotlessly clean, as
+was the entire crypt as far as he could see it by the light of his
+flickering candle. He was not surprised to discover that the air was
+perfectly pure here. There must be windows or ventilators somewhere,
+this he knew from the way his candle behaved.
+
+The ancient vault had a high arched ceiling and heavy massive pillars.
+It was a subterranean repetition of the church above. There had
+evidently been a convent attached to this church at one time; for here
+stood a row of simple wooden coffins all exactly alike, bearing each one
+upon its lid a roughly painted cross surrounded by a wreath. Thus were
+buried the monks of days long past.
+
+Muller walked slowly through the rows of coffins looking eagerly to each
+side. Suddenly he stopped and stood still. His hand did not tremble but
+his thin face was pale--pale as that face which looked up at him out of
+one of the coffins. The lid of the coffin stood up against the wall and
+Muller saw that there were several other empty ones further on, waiting
+for their silent occupants.
+
+The body in the open coffin before which Muller stood was the body of
+the man who had been missing since the day previous. He lay there quite
+peacefully, his hands crossed over his breast, his eyes closed, a line
+of pain about his lips. In the crossed fingers was a little bunch of
+dark yellow roses. At the first glance one might almost have thought
+that loving hands had laid the old pastor in his coffin. But the red
+stain on the white cloth about his throat, and the bloody disorder of
+his snow-white hair contrasted sadly with the look of peace on the dead
+face. Under his head was a white silk cushion, one of the cushions from
+the altar.
+
+Muller stood looking down for some time at this poor victim of a strange
+crime, then he turned to go.
+
+He wanted to know one thing more: how the murderer had left the crypt.
+The flame of his candle told him, for it nearly went out in a gust of
+wind that came down the opening right above him. This was a window about
+three or four feet from the floor, protected by rusty iron bars which
+had been sawed through, leaving the opening free. It was a small window,
+but it was large enough to allow a man of much greater size than Muller
+to pass through it. The detective blew out his candle and climbed up
+onto the window sill. He found himself outside, in a corner of the
+churchyard. A thicket of heavy bushes grown up over neglected graves
+completely hid the opening through which he had come. There were thorns
+on these bushes and also a few scattered roses, dark yellow roses.
+
+Muller walked thoughtfully through the churchyard. The sexton sat
+huddled in an unhappy heap at the gate. He looked up in alarm as he saw
+the detective walking towards him. Something in the stranger’s face told
+the little hunchback that he had made a discovery. The sexton sprang up,
+his lips did not dare utter the question that his eyes asked.
+
+“I have found him,” said the detective gravely.
+
+The hunchback sexton staggered, then recovered himself, and hurried away
+to fetch the magistrate and the doctor.
+
+An hour later the murdered pastor lay in state in the chief apartment
+of his home, surrounded by burning candles and high-heaped masses of
+flowers. But he still lay in the simple convent coffin and the little
+bunch of roses which his murderer had placed between his stiffening
+fingers had not been touched.
+
+Two days later the pastor was buried. The Count and his family led the
+train of numerous mourners and among the last was Muller.
+
+A day or two after the funeral the detective sauntered slowly through
+the main street of the village. He was not in a very good humour, his
+answer to the greeting of those who passed him was short. The children
+avoided him, for with the keenness of their kind they recognised the
+fact that this usually gentle little man was not in possession of his
+habitual calm temper. One group of boys, playing with a top, did not
+notice his coming and Muller stopped behind them to look on. Suddenly
+a sharp whistle was heard and the boys looked up from their play,
+surprised at seeing the stranger behind them. His eyes were gleaming,
+and his cheeks were flushed, and a few bars of a merry tune came in
+a keen whistle from his lips as he watched the spirals made by the
+spinning top.
+
+Before the boys could stop their play the detective had left the group
+and hastened onward to the little shop. He left it again in eager haste
+after having made his purchase, and hurried back to the rectory. The
+shop-keeper stood in the doorway looking in surprise at this grown man
+who came to buy a top. And at home in the rectory the old housekeeper
+listened in equal surprise to the humming noise over her head. She
+thought at first it might be a bee that had got in somehow. Then she
+realised that it was not quite the same noise, and having already
+concluded that it was of no use to be surprised at anything this strange
+guest might do, she continued reading her scriptures.
+
+Upstairs in the pastor’s study, Muller sat in the armchair attentively
+watching the gyrations of a spinning top. The little toy, started at a
+certain point, drew a line exactly parallel to the scratch on the floor
+that had excited his thoughts and absorbed them day and night.
+
+“It was a top--a top” repeated the detective to himself again and again.
+“I don’t see why I didn’t think of that right away. Why, of course,
+nothing else could have drawn such a perfect curve around the room,
+unhindered by the legs of the desk. Only I don’t see how a toy like that
+could have any connection with this cruel and purposeless murder. Why,
+only a fool--or a madman--”
+
+Muller sprang up from his chair and again a sharp shrill whistle came
+from his lips. “A madman!--” he repeated, beating his own forehead. “It
+could only have been a madman who committed this murder! And the
+pastor was not the first, there were two other murders here within a
+comparatively short time. I think I will take advantage of Dr. Orszay’s
+invitation.”
+
+Half an hour later Muller and the doctor sat together in a summer-house,
+from the windows of which one could see the park surrounding the asylum
+to almost its entire extent. The park was arranged with due regard to
+its purpose. The eye could sweep through it unhindered. There were no
+bushes except immediately along the high wall. Otherwise there were
+beautiful lawns, flower beds and groups of fine old trees with tall
+trunks.
+
+As would be natural in visiting such a place Muller had induced the
+doctor to talk about his patients. Dr. Orszay was an excellent talker
+and possessed the power of painting a personality for his listeners.
+He was pleased and flattered by the evident interest with which the
+detective listened to his remarks.
+
+“Then your patients are all quite harmless?” asked Muller thoughtfully,
+when the doctor came to a pause.
+
+“Yes, all quite harmless. Of course, there is the man who strangely
+enough considers himself the reincarnation of the famous French
+murderer, the goldsmith Cardillac, who, as you remember, kept all Paris
+in a fervour of excitement by his crimes during the reign of Louis XIV.
+But in spite of his weird mania this man is the most good-natured of
+any. He has been shut up in his room for several days now. He was a
+mechanician by trade, living in Budapest, and an unsuccessful invention
+turned his mind.”
+
+“Is he a large, powerful man?” asked Muller.
+
+Dr. Orszay looked a bit surprised. “Why do you ask that? He does happen
+to be a large man of considerable strength, but in spite of it I have no
+fear of him. I have an attendant who is invaluable to me, a man of such
+strength that even the fiercest of them cannot overcome him, and yet
+with a mind and a personal magnetism which they cannot resist. He can
+always master our patients mentally and physically--most of them are
+afraid of him and they know that they must do as he says. There is
+something in his very glance which has the power to paralyse even
+healthy nerves, for it shows the strength of will possessed by this
+man.”
+
+“And what is the name of this invaluable attendant?” asked Muller with a
+strange smile which the doctor took to be slightly ironical.
+
+“Gyuri Kovacz. You are amused at my enthusiasm? But consider my position
+here. I am an old man and have never been a strong man. At my age I
+would not have strength enough to force that little woman there--she
+thinks herself possessed and is quite cranky at times--to go to her own
+room when she doesn’t want to. And do you see that man over there in the
+blue blouse? He is an excellent gardener but he believes himself to
+be Napoleon, and when he has his acute attacks I would be helpless to
+control him were it not for Gyuri.”
+
+“And you are not afraid of Cardillac?” interrupted Muller.
+
+“Not in the least. He is as good-natured as a child and as confiding. I
+can let him walk around here as much as he likes. If it were not for the
+absurd nonsense that he talks when he has one of his attacks, and which
+frightens those who do not understand him, I could let him go free
+altogether.”
+
+“Then you never let him leave the asylum grounds?
+
+“Oh, yes. I take him out with me very frequently. He is a man of
+considerable education and a very clever talker. It is quite a pleasure
+to be with him. That was the opinion of my poor friend also, my poor
+murdered friend.”
+
+“The pastor?”
+
+“The pastor. He often invited Cardillac to come to the rectory with me.”
+
+“Indeed. Then Cardillac knew the inside of the rectory?”
+
+“Yes. The pastor used to lend him books and let him choose them himself
+from the library shelves. The people in the village are very kind to my
+poor patients here. I have long since had the habit of taking some of
+the quieter ones with me down into the village and letting the people
+become acquainted with them. It is good for both parties. It gives
+the patients some little diversion, and it takes away the worst of
+the senseless fear these peasants had at first of the asylum and its
+inmates. Cardillac in particular is always welcome when he comes, for he
+brings the children all sorts of toys that he makes in his cell.”
+
+The detective had listened attentively and once his eyes flashed and his
+lips shut tight as if to keep in the betraying whistle. Then he asked
+calmly: “But the patients are only allowed to go out when you accompany
+them, I suppose?”
+
+“Oh, no; the attendants take them out sometimes. I prefer, however, to
+let them go only with Gyuri, for I can depend upon him more than upon
+any of the others.”
+
+“Then he and Cardillac have been out together occasionally?”
+
+“Oh, yes, quite frequently. But--pardon me--this is almost like a
+cross-examination.”
+
+“I beg your pardon, doctor, it’s a bad habit of mine. One gets so
+accustomed to it in my profession.”
+
+“What is it you want?” asked Doctor Orszay, turning to a fine-looking
+young man of superb build, who entered just then and stood by the door.
+
+“I just wanted to announce, sir, that No. 302 is quiet again!
+
+“302 is Cardillac himself, Mr. Muller, or to give him his right name,
+Lajos Varna,” explained the doctor turning to his guest. “He is the
+302nd patient who has been received here in these twenty years. Then
+Cardillac is quiet again?” he asked, looking up at the young giant. “I
+am glad of that. You can announce our visit to him. This gentleman wants
+to inspect the asylum.”
+
+Muller realised that this was the attendant Gyuri, and he looked at
+him attentively. He was soon clear in his own mind that this remarkably
+handsome man did not please him, in fact awoke in him a feeling of
+repulsion. The attendant’s quiet, almost cat-like movements were in
+strange contrast to the massivity of his superb frame, and his large
+round eyes, shaped for open, honest glances, were shifty and cunning.
+They seemed to be asking “Are you trying to discover anything about me?”
+ coupled with a threat. “For your own sake you had better not do it.”
+
+When the young man had left the room Muller rose hastily and walked up
+and down several times. His face was flushed and his lips tight set.
+Suddenly he exclaimed: “I do not like this Gyuri.”
+
+Dr. Orszay looked up astonished. “There are many others who do not like
+him--most of his fellow-warders for instance, and all of the patients.
+I think there must be something in the contrast of such quiet movements
+with such a big body that gets on people’s nerves. But consider, Mr.
+Muller, that the man’s work would naturally make him a little different
+from other people. I have known Gyuri for five years as a faithful
+and unassuming servant, always willing and ready for any duty,
+however difficult or dangerous. He has but one fault--if I may call it
+such--that is that he has a mistress who is known to be mercenary and
+hard-hearted. She lives in a neighbouring village.”
+
+“For five years, you say? And how long has Cardillac been here?”
+
+“Cardillac? He has been here for almost three years.”
+
+“For almost three years, and is it not almost three years--” Muller
+interrupted himself. “Are we quite alone? Is no one listening?” The
+doctor nodded, greatly surprised, and the detective continued almost in
+a whisper, “and it is just about three years now that there have
+been committed, at intervals, three terrible crimes notable from
+the cleverness with which they were carried out, and from the utter
+impossibility, apparently, of discovering the perpetrator.”
+
+Orszay sprang up. His face flushed and then grew livid, and he put his
+hand to his forehead. Then he forced a smile and said in a voice
+that trembled in spite of himself: “Mr. Muller, your imagination is
+wonderful. And which of these two do you think it is that has committed
+these crimes--the perpetrator of which you have come here to find?”
+
+“I will tell you that later. I must speak to No. 302 first, and I must
+speak to him in the presence of yourself and Gyuri.”
+
+The detective’s deep gravity was contagious. Dr. Orszay had sufficiently
+controlled himself to remember what he had heard in former days, and
+just now recently from the district judge about this man’s marvellous
+deeds. He realised that when Muller said a thing, no matter how
+extravagant it might sound, it was worth taking seriously. This
+realisation brought great uneasiness and grief to the doctor’s heart,
+for he had grown fond of both of the men on whom terrible suspicion was
+cast by such an authority.
+
+Muller himself was uneasy, but the gloom that had hung over him for
+the past day or two had vanished. The impenetrable darkness that had
+surrounded the mystery of the pastor’s murder had gotten on his nerves.
+He was not accustomed to work so long over a problem without getting
+some light on it. But now, since the chance watching of the spinning
+top in the street had given him his first inkling of the trail, he was
+following it up to a clear issue. The eagerness, the blissful vibrating
+of every nerve that he always felt at this stage of the game, was on him
+again. He knew that from now on what was still to be done would be easy.
+Hitherto his mind had been made up on one point; that one man alone was
+concerned in the crime. Now he understood the possibility that there
+might have been two, the harmless mechanician who fancied himself a
+dangerous murderer, and the handsome young giant with the evil eyes.
+
+The two men stood looking at each other in a silence that was almost
+hostile. Had this stranger come to disturb the peace of the refuge for
+the unfortunate and to prove that Dr. Orszay, the friend of all the
+village, had unwittingly been giving shelter to such criminals?
+
+“Shall we go now?” asked the detective finally.
+
+“If you wish it, sir,” answered the doctor in a tone that was decidedly
+cool.
+
+Muller held out his hand. “Don’t let us be foolish, doctor. If you
+should find yourself terribly deceived, and I should have been the means
+of proving it, promise me that you will not be angry with me.”
+
+Orszay pressed the offered hand with a deep sigh. He realised the
+other’s position and knew it was his duty to give him every possible
+assistance. “What is there for me to do now?” he asked sadly.
+
+“You must see that all the patients are shut up in their cells so that
+the other attendants are at our disposal if we need them. Varna’s room
+has barred windows, I suppose?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And I suppose also that it has but one door. I believe you told me that
+your asylum was built on the cell system.”
+
+“Yes, there is but one door to the room.”
+
+“Let the four other attendants stand outside this door. Gyuri will be
+inside with us. Tell the men outside that they are to seize and hold
+whomever I shall designate to them. I will call them in by a whistle.
+You can trust your people?”
+
+“Yes, I think I can.”
+
+“Well, I have my revolver,” said Muller calmly, “and now we can go.”
+
+They left the room together, and found Gyuri waiting for them a little
+further along the corridor. “Aren’t you well, sir?” the attendant asked
+the doctor, with an anxious note in his voice.
+
+The man’s anxiety was not feigned. He was really a faithful servant in
+his devotion to the old doctor, although Muller had not misjudged him
+when he decided that this young giant was capable of anything. Good and
+evil often lie so close together in the human heart.
+
+The doctor’s emotion prevented him from speaking, and the detective
+answered in his place. “It is a sudden indisposition,” he said. “Lead
+me to No. 302, who is waiting for us, I suppose. The doctor wants to lie
+down a moment in his own room.”
+
+Gyuri glanced distrustfully at this man whom he had met for the first
+time to-day, but who was no stranger to him--for he had already learned
+the identity of the guest in the rectory. Then he turned his eyes on his
+master. The latter nodded and said: “Take the gentleman to Varna’s room.
+I will follow shortly.”
+
+The cell to which they went was the first one at the head of the
+staircase. “Extremely convenient,” thought Muller to himself. It was a
+large room, comfortably furnished and filled now with the red glow of
+the setting sun. A turning-lathe stood by the window and an elderly man
+was at work at it. Gyuri called to him and he turned and rose when he
+saw a stranger.
+
+Lajos Varna was a tall, loose-jointed man with sallow skin and tired
+eyes. He gave only a hasty glance at his visitor, then looked at Gyuri.
+The expression in his eyes as he turned them on those of the warder
+was like the look in the eyes of a well-trained dog when it watches its
+master’s face. Gyuri’s brows were drawn close together and his mouth
+set tight to a narrow line. His eyes fairly bored themselves into the
+patient’s eyes with an expression like that of a hypnotiser.
+
+Muller knew now what he wanted to know. This young man understood how
+to bend the will of others, even the will of a sick mind, to his own
+desires. The little silent scene he had watched had lasted just the
+length of time it had taken the detective to walk through the room and
+hold out his hand to the patient.
+
+“I don’t want to disturb you, Mr. Varna,” he said in a friendly tone,
+with a motion towards the bench from which the mechanician had just
+arisen. Varna sat down again, obedient as a child. He was not always so
+apparently, for Muller saw a red mark over the fingers of one hand
+that was evidently the mark of a blow. Gyuri was not very choice in the
+methods by which he controlled the patients confided to his care.
+
+“May I sit down also?” asked Muller.
+
+Varna pushed forward a chair. His movements were like those of an
+automaton.
+
+“And now tell me how you like it here?” began the detective. Varna
+answered with a low soft voice, “Oh, I like it very much, sir.” As he
+spoke he looked up at Gyuri, whose eyes still bore their commanding
+expression.
+
+“They treat you kindly here?”
+
+“Oh, yes.”
+
+“The doctor is very good to you?”
+
+“Ah, the doctor is so good!” Varna’s dull eyes brightened.
+
+“And the others are good to you also?”
+
+“Oh, yes.” The momentary gleam in the sad eye had vanished again.
+
+“Where did you get this red scar?”
+
+The patient became uneasy, he moved anxiously on his chair and looked up
+at Gyuri. It was evident that he realised there would be more red marks
+if he told the truth to this stranger.
+
+Muller did not insist upon an answer. “You are uneasy and nervous
+sometimes, aren’t you?”
+
+“Yes, sir, I have been--nervous--lately.”
+
+“And they don’t let you go out at such times?”
+
+“Why, I--no, I may not go out at such times.”
+
+“But the doctor takes you with him sometimes--the doctor or Gyuri?”
+ asked the detective.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“I haven’t had him out with me for weeks,” interrupted the attendant.
+He seemed particularly anxious to have the “for weeks” clearly heard by
+this inconvenient questioner.
+
+Muller dropped this subject and took up another. “They tell me you are
+very fond of children, and I can see that you are making toys for them
+here.”
+
+“Yes, I love children, and I am so glad they are not afraid of me.”
+ These words were spoken with more warmth and greater interest than
+anything the man had yet said.
+
+“And they tell me that you take gifts with you for the children every
+time you go down to the village. This is pretty work here, and it must
+be a pleasant diversion for you.” Muller had taken up a dainty little
+spinning-wheel which was almost completed. “Isn’t it made from the wood
+of a red yew tree?”
+
+“Yes, the doctor gave me a whole tree that had been cut down in the
+park.”
+
+“And that gave you wood for a long time?”
+
+“Yes, indeed; I have been making toys from it for months.” Varna had
+become quite eager and interested as he handed his visitor a number of
+pretty trifles. The two had risen from their chairs and were leaning
+over the wide window seat which served as a store-house for the wares
+turned out by the busy workman. They were toys, mostly, all sorts
+of little pots and plates, dolls’ furniture, balls of various sizes,
+miniature bowling pins, and tops. Muller took up one of the latter.
+
+“How very clever you are, and how industrious,” he exclaimed, sitting
+down again and turning the top in his hands. It was covered with grey
+varnish with tiny little yellow stripes painted on it. Towards the lower
+point a little bit of the varnish had been broken off and the reddish
+wood underneath was visible. The top was much better constructed than
+the cheap toys sold in the village. It was hollow and contained in its
+interior a mechanism started by a pressure on the upper end. Once set in
+motion the little top spun about the room for some time.
+
+“Oh, isn’t that pretty! Is this mechanism your own invention?” asked
+Muller smiling. Gyuri watched the top with drawn brows and murmured
+something about “childish foolishness.”
+
+“Yes, it is my own invention,” said the patient, flattered. He started
+out on an absolutely technical explanation of the mechanism of tops in
+general and of his own in particular, an explanation so lucid and so
+well put that no one would have believed the man who was speaking was
+not in possession of the full powers of his mind.
+
+Muller listened very attentively with unfeigned interest.
+
+“But you have made more important inventions than this, haven’t you?” he
+asked when the other stopped talking. Varna’s eyes flashed and his voice
+dropped to a tone of mystery as he answered: “Yes indeed I have. But I
+did not have time to finish them. For I had become some one else.”
+
+“Some one else?”
+
+“Cardillac,” whispered Varna, whose mania was now getting the best of
+him again.
+
+“Cardillac? You mean the notorious goldsmith who lived in Paris 200
+years ago? Why, he’s dead.”
+
+Varna’s pale lips curled in a superior smile. “Oh, yes--that’s
+what people think, but it’s a mistake. He is still alive--I am--I
+have--although of course there isn’t much opportunity here--”
+
+Gyuri cleared his throat with a rasping noise.
+
+“What were you saying, friend Cardillac?” asked Muller with a great show
+of interest.
+
+“I have done things here that nobody has found out. It gives me great
+pleasure to see the authorities so helpless over the riddles I have
+given them to solve. Oh, indeed, sir, you would never imagine how stupid
+they are here.”
+
+“In other words, friend Cardillac, you are too clever for the
+authorities here?
+
+“Yes, that’s it,” said the insane man greatly flattered. He raised his
+head proudly and smiled down at his guest. At this moment the doctor
+came into the room and Gyuri walked forward to the group at the window.
+
+“You are making him nervous, sir,” he said to Muller in a tone that was
+almost harsh.
+
+“You can leave that to me,” answered the detective calmly. “And you will
+please place yourself behind Mr. Varna’s chair, not behind mine. It is
+your eyes that are making him uneasy.”
+
+The attendant was alarmed and lost control of himself for a moment.
+“Sir!” he exclaimed in an outburst.
+
+“My name is Muller, in case you do not know it already, Joseph Muller,
+detective. Gyuri Kovacz, you will do what I tell you to! I am master
+here just now. Is it not so, doctor?”
+
+“Yes, it is so,” said the doctor.
+
+“What does this mean?” murmured Gyuri, turning pale.
+
+“It means that the best thing for you to do is to stand up against that
+wall and fold your arms on your breast,” said Muller firmly. He took a
+revolver from his pocket and laid it beside him on the turning-lathe.
+The young giant, cowed by the sight of the weapon, obeyed the commands
+of this little man whom he could have easily crushed with a single blow.
+
+Dr. Orszay sank down on the chair beside the door. Muller, now
+completely master of the situation, turned to the insane man who stood
+looking at him in a surprise which was mingled with admiration.
+
+“And now, my dear Cardillac, you must tell us of your great deeds here,”
+ said the detective in a friendly tone.
+
+The unfortunate man bent over him with shining eyes and whispered: “But
+you’ll shoot him first, won’t you?”
+
+“Why should I shoot him?”
+
+“Because he won’t let me say a word without beating me. He is so cruel.
+He sticks pins into me if I don’t do what he wants.”
+
+“Why didn’t you tell the doctor?”
+
+“Gyuri would have treated me worse than ever then. I am a coward, sir,
+I’m so afraid of pain and he knew that--he knew that I was afraid of
+being hurt and that I’d always do what he asked of me. And because I
+don’t like to be hurt myself I always finished them off quickly.”
+
+“Finished who?”
+
+“Why, there was Red Betty, he wanted her money.”
+
+“Who wanted it?”
+
+“Gyuri.”
+
+The man at the wall moved when he heard this terrible accusation. But
+the detective took up his revolver again. “Be quiet there!” he called,
+with a look such as he might have thrown at an angry dog. Gyuri stood
+quiet again but his eyes shot flames and great drops stood out on his
+forehead.
+
+“Now go on, friend Cardillac,” continued the detective. “We were talking
+about Red Betty.”
+
+“I strangled her. She did not even know she was dying. She was such a
+weak old woman, it really couldn’t have hurt her.”
+
+“No, certainly not,” said Muller soothingly, for he saw that the thought
+that his victim might have suffered was beginning to make the madman
+uneasy. “You needn’t worry about that. Old Betty died a quiet death. But
+tell me, how did Gyuri know that she had money?”
+
+“The whole village knew it. She laid cards for people and earned a lot
+of money that way. She was very stingy and saved every bit. Somebody saw
+her counting out her money once, she had it in a big stocking under her
+bed. People in the village talked about it. That’s how Gyuri heard of
+it.”
+
+“And so he commanded you to kill Betty and steal her money?”
+
+“Yes. He knew that I loved to give them riddles to guess, just as I did
+in Paris so long ago.”
+
+“Oh, yes, you’re Cardillac, aren’t you? And now tell us about the
+smith’s swineherd.”
+
+“You mean Janos? Oh, he was a stupid lout,” answered Varna scornfully.
+
+“He had cast an eye on the beautiful Julcsi, Gyuri’s mistress, so of
+course I had to kill him.”
+
+“Did you do that alone?”
+
+“No, Gyuri helped me.”
+
+“Why did you cut the bridge supports?”
+
+“Because I enjoy giving people riddles, as I told you. But Gyuri forbade
+me to kill people uselessly. I liked the chance of getting out though.
+The doctor’s so good to me and the others too. Gyuri is good to me
+when I have done what he wanted. But you see, Mr. Muller, I am like a
+prisoner here and that makes me angry. I made Gyuri let me out nights
+sometimes.”
+
+“You mean he let you out alone, all alone?”
+
+“Yes, of course, for I threatened to tell the doctor everything if he
+didn’t.”
+
+“You wouldn’t have dared do that.”
+
+“No, that’s true,” smiled Varna slyly. “But Gyuri was afraid I might
+do it, for he isn’t always strong enough to frighten me with his
+eyes. Those were the hours when I could make him afraid--I liked those
+hours--”
+
+“What did you do when you were out alone at night?”
+
+“I just walked about. I set fire to a tree in the woods once, then the
+rain came and put it out. Once I killed a dog and another time I cut
+through the bridge supports. That took me several hours to do and made
+me very tired. But it was such fun to know that people would be worrying
+and fussing about who did it.”
+
+Varna rubbed his hands gleefully. He did not look the least bit
+malicious but only very much amused. The doctor groaned. Gyuri’s great
+body trembled, his arms shook, but he did not make a single voluntary
+movement. He saw the revolver in Muller’s hand and felt the keen grey
+eyes resting on him in pitiless calm.
+
+“And now tell us about the pastor?” said the detective in a firm clear
+voice.
+
+“Oh, he was a dear, good gentleman,” said No. 302 with an expression of
+pitying sorrow on his face. “I owed him much gratitude; that’s why I put
+the roses in his hand.”
+
+“Yes, but you murdered him first.”
+
+“Of course, Gyuri told me to.”
+
+“And why?”
+
+“He hated the pastor, for the old gentleman had no confidence in him.”
+
+“Is this true?” Muller turned to the doctor.
+
+“I did not notice it,” said Orszay with a voice that showed deep sorrow.
+
+“And you?” Muller’s eyes bored themselves into the orbs of the young
+giant, now dulled with fear.
+
+Gyuri started and shivered. “He looked at me sharply every now and
+then,” he murmured.
+
+“And that was why he was killed?”
+
+The warder’s head sank on his breast.
+
+“No, not only for that reason,” continued No. 302. “Gyuri needed money
+again. He ordered me to bring him the silver candlesticks off the
+altar.”
+
+“Murder and sacrilege,” said the detective calmly.
+
+“No, I did not rob the church. When I had buried the reverend gentleman
+I heard the cock crowing. I was afraid I might get home here too late
+and I forgot the candlesticks. I had to stop to wash my hands in the
+brook. While I was there I saw shepherd Janci coming along and I hid
+behind the willows. He almost discovered me once, but Janci’s a
+dreamer, he sees things nobody else sees--and he doesn’t see things that
+everybody else does see. I couldn’t help laughing at his sleepy face.
+But I didn’t laugh when I came back to the asylum. Gyuri was waiting for
+me at the door. When he saw that I hadn’t brought the candlesticks he
+beat me and tortured me worse than he’d ever done before.”
+
+“And you didn’t tell anyone?”
+
+“Why, no; because I was afraid that if I told on him, I’d never be able
+to go out again.”
+
+“And you, quite alone, could carry the pastor’s body out of his room?”
+
+“I am very strong.”
+
+“How did you arrange it that there should be no traces of blood to
+betray you?”
+
+“I waited until the body had stiffened, then I tied up the wound and
+carried him down into the crypt.”
+
+“Why did you do that?”
+
+“I didn’t want to leave him in that horrid pool of blood.”
+
+“You were sorry for him then?”
+
+“Why, yes; it looked so horrid to see him lying there--and he had
+always been so good to me. He was so good to me that very evening when I
+entered his study.
+
+“He recognised you?
+
+“Certainly. He sprang up from his chair when I came in through the
+passage from the church. I saw that he was startled, but he smiled at me
+and reached out his hand to me and said: ‘What brings you here, my dear
+Cardillac?’ And then I struck. I wanted him to die with that smile on
+his lips. It is beautiful to see a man die smiling, it shows that he has
+not been afraid of death. He was dead at once. I always kill that way--I
+know just how to strike and where. I killed more than a hundred people
+years ago in Paris, and I didn’t leave one of them the time for even a
+sigh. I was renowned for that--I had a kind heart and a sure hand.”
+
+Muller interrupted the dreadful imaginings of the madman with a
+question. “You got into the house through the crypt?”
+
+“Yes, through the crypt. I found the window one night when I was
+prowling around in the churchyard. When I knew that the pastor was to be
+the next, I cut through the window bars. Gyuri went into the church one
+day when nobody was there and found out that it was easy to lift the
+stone over the entrance to the crypt. He also learned that the doors
+from the church to the vestry were never locked. I knew how to find the
+passageway, because I had been through it several times on my visits to
+the rectory. But it was a mere chance that the door into the pastor’s
+study was unlocked.”
+
+“A chance that cost the life of a worthy man,” said the detective
+gravely.
+
+Varna nodded sadly. “But he didn’t suffer, he was dead at once.”
+
+“And now tell me what this top was doing there?” No. 302 looked at the
+detective in great surprise, and then laid his hand on the latter’s arm.
+“How did you know that I had the top there?” he asked with a show of
+interest.
+
+“I found its traces in the room, and it was those traces that led me
+here to you,” answered Muller.
+
+“How strange!” remarked Varna. “Are you like shepherd Janci that you can
+see the things others don’t see?”
+
+“No, I have not Janci’s gift. It would be a great comfort to me and a
+help to the others perhaps if I had. I can only see things after they
+have happened.”
+
+“But you can see more than others--the others did not see the traces of
+the top?”
+
+“My business is to see more than others see,” said Muller. “But you have
+not told me yet what the top was doing there. Why did you take a toy
+like that with you when you went out on such an errand?”
+
+“It was in my pocket by chance. When I reached for my handkerchief to
+quench the flow of blood the top came out with it. I must have touched
+the spring without knowing it, for the top began to spin. I stood still
+and watched it, then I ran after it. It spun around the room and finally
+came back to the body. So did I. The pastor was quite still and dead by
+that time.”
+
+“You have heard everything, Dr. Orszay?” asked the detective, rising
+from his chair.
+
+“Yes, I have heard everything,” answered the venerable head of the
+asylum. He was utterly crushed by the realisation that all this tragedy
+and horror had gone out from his house.
+
+Varna rose also. He understood perfectly that now Gyuri’s power was
+at an end and he was as pleased as a child that has just received a
+present. “And now you’re going to shoot him?” he asked, in the tone a
+boy would use if asking when the fireworks were to begin.
+
+Muller shook his head. “No, my dear Cardillac,” he replied gravely. “He
+will not be shot--that is a death for a brave soldier--but this man has
+deserved--” He did not finish the sentence, for the warder sank to the
+floor unconscious.
+
+“What a coward!” murmured the detective scornfully, looking down at the
+giant frame that lay prostrate before him. Even in his wide experience
+he had known of no case of a man of such strength and such bestial
+cruelty, combined with such utter cowardice.
+
+Varna also stood looking down at the unconscious warder. Then he glanced
+up with a cunning smile at the other two men who stood there. The
+doctor, pale and trembling with horror, covered his face with his hands.
+Muller turned to the door to call in the attendants waiting outside.
+During the moment’s pause that ensued the madman bent over his
+worktable, seized a knife that lay there and dropped on one knee beside
+the prostrate form. His hand was raised to strike when a calm voice
+said: “Fie! Cardillac, for shame! Do not belittle yourself. This man
+here is not worthy of your knife, the hangman will look after him.”
+
+Varna raised his loose-jointed frame and looked about with glistening
+eyes and trembling lips. His mind was completely darkened once more.
+“I must kill him--I must have his blood--there is no one to see me,” he
+murmured. “I am a hangman too--he has made a hangman of me,” and again
+he bent with uplifted hand over the man who had utilised his terrible
+misfortune to make a criminal of him. But two of the waiting attendants
+seized his arms and threw him back on the floor, while the other two
+carted Gyuri out. Both unfortunates were soon securely guarded.
+
+“Do not be angry with me, doctor,” said Muller gravely, as he walked
+through the garden accompanied by Orszay.
+
+Doctor Orszay laughed bitterly. “Why should I be angry with you--you
+who have discovered my inexcusable credulity?”
+
+“Inexcusable? Oh, no, doctor; it was quite natural that you should have
+believed a man who had himself so well in hand, and who knew so well
+how to play his part. When we come to think of it, we realise that
+most crimes have been made possible through some one’s credulity, or
+over-confidence, a credulity which, in the light of subsequent events,
+seems quite incomprehensible. Do not reproach yourself and do not lose
+heart. Your only fault was that you did not recognise the heart of the
+beast of prey in this admirable human form.”
+
+“What course will the law take?” asked Orszay. “The poor unfortunate
+madman--whose knife took all these lives--cannot be held responsible,
+can he?”
+
+“Oh, no; his misfortune protects him. But as for the other, though his
+hands bear no actual bloodstains, he is more truly a murderer than the
+unhappy man who was his tool. Hanging is too good for him. There are
+times when even I could wish that we were back in the Middle Ages, when
+it was possible to torture a prisoner.
+
+“You do not look like that sort of a man,” smiled the doctor through his
+sadness.
+
+“No, I am the most good-natured of men usually, I think--the meekest
+anyway,” answered Muller. “But a case like this--. However, as I said
+before, keep a stout heart, doctor, and do not waste time in unnecessary
+self-reproachings.” The detective pressed the doctor’s hand warmly and
+walked down the hill towards the village.
+
+He went at once to the office of the magistrate and made his report,
+then returned to the rectory and packed his grip. He arranged for its
+transport to the railway station, as he himself preferred to walk the
+inconsiderable distance. He passed through the village and had just
+entered the open fields when he met Janci with his flock. The shepherd
+hastened his steps when he saw the detective approaching.
+
+“You have found him, sir?” he exclaimed as he came up to Muller. The men
+had come to be friends by this time. The silent shepherd with the power
+of second sight had won Muller’s interest at once.
+
+“Yes, I found him. It is Gyuri, the warder at the asylum.”
+
+“No, sir, it is not Gyuri--Gyuri did not do it.”
+
+“But when I tell you that he did?”
+
+“But I tell you, sir, that Gyuri did not do it. The man who did it--he
+has yellowish hands--I saw them--I saw big yellowish hands. Gyuri’s
+hands are big, but they are brown.”
+
+“Janci, you are right. I was only trying to test you. Gyuri did not do
+it; that is, he did not do it with his own hands. The man who held the
+knife that struck down the pastor was Varna, the crazy mechanician.”
+
+Janci beat his forehead. “Oh, I am a foolish and useless dreamer!” he
+exclaimed; “of course it was Varna’s hands that I saw. I have seen them
+a hundred times when he came down into the village, and yet when I saw
+them in the vision I did not recognise them.”
+
+“We’re all dreamers, Janci--and our dreams are very useless generally.”
+
+“Yours are not useless, sir,” said the shepherd. “If I had as much
+brains as you have, my dreams might be of some good.”
+
+Muller smiled. “And if I had your visions, Janci, it would be a powerful
+aid to me in my profession.”
+
+“I don’t think you need them, sir. You can find out the hidden things
+without them. You are going to leave us?”
+
+“Yes, Janci, I must go back to Budapest, and from there to Vienna. They
+need me on another case.”
+
+“It’s a sad work, this bringing people to the gallows, isn’t it?”
+
+“Yes, Janci, it is sometimes. But it’s a good thing to be able to avenge
+crime and bring justice to the injured. Good-bye, Janci.”
+
+“Good-bye, sir, and God speed you.”
+
+The shepherd stood looking after the small, slight figure of the man
+who walked on rapidly through the heather. “He’s the right one for the
+work,” murmured Janci as he turned slowly back towards the village.
+
+An hour later Muller stood in the little waiting-room of the railway
+station writing a telegram. It was addressed to Count ----.
+
+  “Do you know the shepherd Janci?  It would be a good thing to
+  make him the official detective for the village.  He has high
+  qualifications for the profession.  If I had his gifts combined
+  with my own, not one could escape me.  I have found this one
+  however.  The guards are already taking him to you.  My work
+  here is done.  If I should be needed again I can be found at
+  Police Headquarters, Vienna.
+                                                  “Respectfully,
+                                                  “JOSEPH MULLER.”
+
+While the detective was writing his message--it was one of the rare
+moments of humour that Muller allowed himself, and he wondered mildly
+what the stately Hungarian nobleman would think of it--a heavy farm
+wagon jolted over the country roads towards the little county seat.
+Sitting beside the driver and riding about the wagon were armed
+peasants. The figure of a man, securely bound, his face distorted by
+rage and fear, lay in the wagon. It was Gyuri Kovacz, who had murdered
+by the hands of another, and who was now on his way to meet the death
+that was his due.
+
+And at one of the barred windows in the big yellow house stood a
+sallow-faced man, looking out at the rising moon with sad, tired eyes.
+His lips were parted in a smile like that of a dreaming child, and he
+hummed a gentle lullaby.
+
+In his compartment of the express from Budapest to Vienna, Joseph Muller
+sat thinking over the strange events that had called him to the obscure
+little Hungarian village. He had met with many strange cases in his long
+career, but this particular case had some features which were unique.
+Muller’s lips set hard and his hands tightened to fists as he murmured:
+“I’ve met with criminals who used strange tools, but never before have
+I met with one who had the cunning and the incredible cruelty to utilise
+the mania of an unhinged human mind. It is a thousand times worse than
+those criminals who, now and then throughout the ages, have trained
+brute beasts to murder for them. Truly, this Hungarian peasant, Gyuri
+Kovacz, deserves a high place in the infamous roll-call of the great
+criminals of history. A student of crime might almost be led to think
+that it is a pity his career has been cut short so soon. He might have
+gone far.
+
+“But for humanity’s sake” (Muller’s eyes gleamed), “I am thankful that I
+was able to discover this beast in human form and render him innocuous;
+he had done quite enough.”
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Case of The Pool of Blood in the
+Pastor’s Study, by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Case of the Pool Of Blood in The Pastor's Study, by Grace Isabel
+      Colbron and Augusta Groner
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
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+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
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+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Case of The Pool of Blood in the
+Pastor's Study, by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Case of The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study
+
+Author: Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+Release Date: October 29, 2008 [EBook #1835]
+Last Updated: October 14, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOL OF BLOOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR&rsquo;S STUDY
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Contents
+    </h3>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION TO JOE MULLER </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> JOE MULLER: DETECTIVE </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE
+            PASTOR&rsquo;S STUDY </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION TO JOE MULLER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&rsquo;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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joseph Muller&rsquo;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, &ldquo;May I do this? ... or may I handle this case this way?&rdquo; 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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This call of the trail is something that is stronger than anything else in
+      Muller&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s hand can be seen in the unravelling of many a
+      famous case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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&rsquo;s peculiar method of working, his looking on
+      himself as merely an humble member of the Department, and the comedy of
+      his acting under &ldquo;official orders&rdquo; when the Department is in reality
+      following out his directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      JOE MULLER: DETECTIVE
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR&rsquo;S STUDY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The sun rose slowly over the great bulk of the Carpathian mountains lying
+      along the horizon, weird giant shapes in the early morning mist. It was
+      still very quiet in the village. A cock crowed here and there, and
+      swallows flew chirping close to the ground, darting swiftly about
+      preparing for their higher flight. Janci the shepherd, apparently the only
+      human being already up, stood beside the brook at the point where the old
+      bridge spans the streamlet, still turbulent from the mountain floods.
+      Janci was cutting willows to make his Margit a new basket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once the shepherd raised his head from his work, for he thought he heard a
+      loud laugh somewhere in the near distance. But all seemed silent and he
+      turned back to his willows. The beauty of the landscape about him was much
+      too familiar a thing that he should have felt or seen its charm. The
+      violet hue of the distant woods, the red gleaming of the heather-strewn
+      moor, with its patches of swamp from which the slow mist arose, the pretty
+      little village with its handsome old church and attractive rectory&mdash;Janci
+      had known it so long that he never stopped to realise how very charming,
+      in its gentle melancholy, it all was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Also, Janci did not know that this little village of his home had once
+      been a flourishing city, and that an invasion of the Turks had razed it to
+      the ground leaving, as by a miracle, only the church to tell of former
+      glories.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun rose higher and higher. And now the village awoke to its daily
+      life. Voices of cattle and noises of poultry were heard about the houses,
+      and men and women began their accustomed round of tasks. Janci found that
+      he had gathered enough willow twigs by this time. He tied them in a loose
+      bundle and started on his homeward way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His path led through wide-stretching fields and vineyards past a little
+      hill, some distance from the village, on which stood a large house. It was
+      not a pleasant house to look at, not a house one would care to live in,
+      even if one did not know its use, for it looked bare and repellant,
+      covered with its ugly yellow paint, and with all the windows secured with
+      heavy iron bars. The trees that surrounded it were tall and
+      thick-foliaged, casting an added gloom over the forbidding appearance of
+      the house. At the foot of the hill was a high iron fence, cutting off what
+      lay behind it from all the rest of the world. For this ugly yellow house
+      enclosed in its walls a goodly sum of hopeless human misery and
+      misfortune. It was an insane asylum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For twenty years now, the asylum had stood on its hill, a source of
+      superstitious terror to the villagers, but at the same time a source of
+      added income. It meant money for them, for it afforded a constant and
+      ever-open market for their farm products and the output of their home
+      industry. But every now and then a scream or a harsh laugh would ring out
+      from behind those barred windows, and those in the village who could hear,
+      would shiver and cross themselves. Shepherd Janci had little fear of the
+      big house. His little hut cowered close by the high iron gates, and he had
+      a personal acquaintance with most of the patients, with all of the
+      attendants, and most of all, with the kind elderly physician who was the
+      head of the establishment. Janci knew them all, and had a kind word
+      equally for all. But otherwise he was a silent man, living much within
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the shepherd reached his little home, his wife came to meet him with
+      a call to breakfast. As they sat down at the table a shadow moved past the
+      little window. Janci looked up. &ldquo;Who was that?&rdquo; asked Margit, looking up
+      from her folded hands. She had just finished her murmured prayer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pastor&rsquo;s Liska,&rdquo; replied Janci indifferently, beginning his meal. (Liska
+      was the local abbreviation for Elizabeth.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In such a hurry?&rdquo; thought the shepherd&rsquo;s wife. Her curiosity would not
+      let her rest. &ldquo;I hope His Reverence isn&rsquo;t ill again,&rdquo; she remarked after a
+      while. Janci did not hear her, for he was very busy picking a fly out of
+      his milk cup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think Liska was going for the old man?&rdquo; began Margit again after a
+      few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The &ldquo;old man&rdquo; was the name given by the people of the village, more as a
+      term of endearment than anything else, to the generally loved and
+      respected physician who was the head of the insane asylum. He had become
+      general mentor and oracle of all the village and was known and loved by
+      man, woman and child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s possible,&rdquo; answered Janci.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His Reverence didn&rsquo;t look very well yesterday, or maybe the old
+      housekeeper has the gout again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Janci gave a grunt which might have meant anything. The shepherd was a
+      silent man. Being alone so much had taught him to find his own thoughts
+      sufficient company. Ten minutes passed in silence since Margit&rsquo;s last
+      question, then some one went past the window. There were two people this
+      time, Liska and the old doctor. They were walking very fast, running
+      almost. Margit sprang up and hurried to the door to look after them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Janci sat still in his place, but he had laid aside his spoon and with
+      wide eyes was staring ahead of him, murmuring, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the pastor this time;
+      I saw him&mdash;just as I did the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shepherd, the inn-keeper wants to see you, there&rsquo;s something the matter
+      with his cow.&rdquo; Count &mdash;&mdash; a young man, came from the other
+      direction and pushed in at the door past Margit, who stood there staring
+      up the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Janci was so deep in his own thoughts that he apparently did not hear the
+      boy&rsquo;s words. At all events he did not answer them, but himself asked an
+      unexpected question&mdash;a question that was not addressed to the others
+      in the room, but to something out and beyond them. It was a strange
+      question and it came from the lips of a man whose mind was not with his
+      body at that moment&mdash;whose mind saw what others did not see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who will be the next to go? And who will be our pastor now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These were Janci&rsquo;s words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you talking about, shepherd? Is it another one of your visions?&rdquo;
+       exclaimed the young fellow who stood there before him. Janci rubbed his
+      hands over his eyes and seemed to come down to earth with a start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, is that you, Ferenz? What do you want of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy gave his message again, and Janci nodded good-humouredly and
+      followed him out of the house. But both he and his young companion were
+      very thoughtful as they plodded along the way. The boy did not dare to ask
+      any questions, for he knew that the shepherd was not likely to answer.
+      There was a silent understanding among the villagers that no one should
+      annoy Janci in any way, for they stood in a strange awe of him, although
+      he was the most good-natured mortal under the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the shepherd and the boy walked toward the inn, the old doctor and
+      Liska had hurried onward to the rectory. They were met at the door by the
+      aged housekeeper, who staggered down the path wringing her hands, unable
+      to give voice to anything but inarticulate expressions of grief and
+      terror. The rest of the household and the farm hands were gathered in a
+      frightened group in the great courtyard of the stately rectory which had
+      once been a convent building. The physician hurried up the stairs into the
+      pastor&rsquo;s apartments. These were high sunny and airy rooms with arched
+      ceilings, deep window seats, great heavy doors and handsomely ornamented
+      stoves. The simple modern furniture appeared still more plain and
+      common-place by contrast with the huge spaces of the building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one of the rooms a gendarme was standing beside the window. The man
+      saluted the physician, then shrugged his shoulders with an expression of
+      hopelessness. The doctor returned a silent greeting and passed through
+      into the next apartment. The old man was paler than usual and his face
+      bore an expression of pain and surprise, the same expression that showed
+      in the faces of those gathered downstairs. The room he now entered was
+      large like the others, the walls handsomely decorated, and every corner of
+      it was flooded with sunshine. There were two men in this room, the village
+      magistrate and the notary. Their expression, as they held out their hands
+      to the doctor, showed that his coming brought great relief. And there was
+      something else in the room, something that drew the eyes of all three of
+      the men immediately after their silent greeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a great pool of blood which lay as a hideous stain on the
+      otherwise clean yellow-painted floor. The blood must have flowed from a
+      dreadful wound, from a severed artery even, the doctor thought, there was
+      such a quantity of it. It had already dried and darkened, making its
+      terrifying ugliness the more apparent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the third murder in two years,&rdquo; said the magistrate in a low
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the most mysterious of all of them,&rdquo; added the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is,&rdquo; said the doctor. &ldquo;And there is not a trace of the body, you
+      say?&mdash;or a clue as to where they might have taken the dead&mdash;or
+      dying man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words he looked carefully around the room, but there was no
+      more blood to be seen anywhere. Any spot would have been clearly visible
+      on the light-coloured floor. There was nothing else to tell of the
+      horrible crime that had been committed here, nothing but the great,
+      hideous, brown-red spot in the middle of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you made a thorough search for the body?&rdquo; asked the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The magistrate shook his head. &ldquo;No, I have done nothing to speak of yet.
+      We have been waiting for you. There is a gendarme at the gate; no one can
+      go in or out without being seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, then, let us begin our search now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The magistrate and his companion turned towards the door of the room but
+      the doctor motioned them to come back. &ldquo;I see you do not know the house as
+      well as I do,&rdquo; he said, and led the way towards a niche in the side of the
+      wall, which was partially filled by a high bookcase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah&mdash;that is the entrance of the passage to the church?&rdquo; asked the
+      magistrate in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, this is it. The door is not locked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean you believe&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That the murderers came in from the church? Why not? It is quite
+      possible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To think of such a thing!&rdquo; exclaimed the notary with a shake of his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor laughed bitterly. &ldquo;To those who are planning a murder, a church
+      is no more than any other place. There is a bolt here as you see. I will
+      close this bolt now. Then we can leave the room knowing that no one can
+      enter it without being seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The simple furniture of the study, a desk, a sofa, a couple of chairs and
+      several bookcases, gave no chance of any hiding place either for the body
+      of the victim or for the murderers. When the men left the room the
+      magistrate locked the door and put the key in his own pocket. The gendarme
+      in the neighbouring apartment was sent down to stand in the courtyard at
+      the entrance to the house. The sexton, a little hunchback, was ordered to
+      remain in the vestry at the other end of the passage from the church to
+      the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the thorough search of the house began. Every room in both stories,
+      every corner of the attic and the cellar, was looked over thoroughly. The
+      stable, the barns, the garden and even the well underwent a close
+      examination. There was no trace of a body anywhere, not even a trail of
+      blood, nothing which would give the slightest clue as to how the murderers
+      had entered, how they had fled, or what they had done with their victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great gate of the courtyard was closed. The men, reinforced by the
+      farm hands, entered the church, while Liska and the dairy-maids huddled in
+      the servants&rsquo; dining-room in a trembling group around the old housekeeper.
+      The search in the church as well as in the vestry was equally in vain.
+      There was no trace to be found there any more than in the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, during these hours of anxious seeking, the rumour of another
+      terrible crime had spread through the village, and a crowd that grew from
+      minute to minute gathered in front of the closed gates to the rectory, in
+      front of the church, the closed doors of which did not open although it
+      was a high feast day. The utter silence from the steeple, where the bells
+      hung mute, added to the spreading terror. Finally the doctor came out from
+      the rectory, accompanied by the magistrate, and announced to the waiting
+      villagers that their venerable pastor had disappeared under circumstances
+      which left no doubt that he had met his death at the hand of a murderer.
+      The peasants listened in shuddering silence, the men pale-faced, the women
+      sobbing aloud with frightened children hanging to their skirts. Then at
+      the magistrate&rsquo;s order, the crowd dispersed slowly, going to their homes,
+      while a messenger set off to the near-by county seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a weird, sad Easter Monday. Even nature seemed to feel the pressure
+      of the brooding horror, for heavy clouds piled up towards noon and a chill
+      wind blew fitfully from the north, bending the young corn and the creaking
+      tree-tops, and moaning about the straw-covered roofs. Then an icy cold
+      rain descended on the village, sending the children, the only humans still
+      unconscious of the fear that had come on them all, into the houses to play
+      quietly in the corner by the hearth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing else spoken of wherever two or three met together
+      throughout the village except this dreadful, unexplainable thing that had
+      happened in the rectory. The little village inn was full to overflowing
+      and the hum of voices within was like the noise of an excited beehive.
+      Everyone had some new explanation, some new guess, and it was not until
+      the notary arrived, looking even more important than usual, that silence
+      fell upon the excited throng. But the expectations aroused by his coming
+      were not fulfilled. The notary knew no more than the others although he
+      had been one of the searchers in the rectory. But he was in no haste to
+      disclose his ignorance, and sat wrapped in a dignified silence until some
+      one found courage to question him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was there nothing stolen?&rdquo; he was asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, nothing as far as we can tell yet. But if it was the gypsies&mdash;as
+      may be likely&mdash;they are content with so little that it would not be
+      noticed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gypsies?&rdquo; exclaimed one man scornfully. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t have to be gypsies,
+      we&rsquo;ve got enough tramps and vagabonds of our own. Didn&rsquo;t they kill the
+      pedlar for the sake of a bag of tobacco, and old Katiza for a couple of
+      hens?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you rake up things that happened twenty years ago?&rdquo; cried another
+      over the table. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d better tell us rather who killed Red Betty, and
+      pulled Janos, the smith&rsquo;s farm hand, down into the swamp?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, or who cut the bridge supports, when the brook was in flood, so that
+      two good cows broke through and drowned?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed, if we only knew what band of robbers and villains it is that
+      is ravaging our village.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they haven&rsquo;t stopped yet, evidently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the worst misfortune of all! What will our poor do now that they
+      have murdered our good pastor, who cared for us all like a father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He gave all he had to the poor, he kept nothing for himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed, that&rsquo;s how it was. And now we can&rsquo;t even give this good man
+      Christian burial.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shepherd Janci knew this morning early that we were going to have a new
+      pastor,&rdquo; whispered the landlord in the notary&rsquo;s ear. The latter looked up
+      astonished. &ldquo;Who said so?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My boy Ferenz, who went to fetch him about seven o&rsquo;clock. One of my cows
+      was sick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ferenz was sent for and told his story. The men listened with great
+      interest, and the smith, a broad-shouldered elderly man, was particularly
+      eager to hear, as he had always believed in the shepherd&rsquo;s power of second
+      sight. The tailor, who was more modern-minded, laughed and made his jokes
+      at this. But the smith laid one mighty hand on the other&rsquo;s shoulder,
+      almost crushing the tailor&rsquo;s slight form under its weight, and said
+      gravely: &ldquo;Friend, do you be silent in this matter. You&rsquo;ve come from other
+      parts and you do not know of things that have happened here in days gone
+      by. Janci can do more than take care of his sheep. One day, when my little
+      girl was playing in the street, he said to me, &lsquo;Have a care of Maruschka,
+      smith!&rsquo; and three days later the child was dead. The evening before Red
+      Betty was murdered he saw her in a vision lying in a coffin in front of
+      her door. He told it to the sexton, whom he met in the fields; and next
+      morning they found Betty dead. And there are many more things that I could
+      tell you, but what&rsquo;s the use; when a man won&rsquo;t believe it&rsquo;s only lost talk
+      to try to make him. But one thing you should know: when Janci stares ahead
+      of him without seeing what&rsquo;s in front of him, then the whole village
+      begins to wonder what&rsquo;s going to happen, for Janci knows far more than all
+      the rest of us put together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The smith&rsquo;s grave, deep voice filled the room and the others listened in a
+      silence that gave assent to his words. He had scarcely finished speaking,
+      however, when there was a noise of galloping hoofs and rapidly rolling
+      wagon wheels. A tall brake drawn by four handsome horses dashed past in a
+      whirlwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the Count&mdash;the Count and the district judge,&rdquo; said the landlord
+      in a tone of respect. The notary made a grab at his hat and umbrella and
+      hurried from the room. &ldquo;That shows how much they thought of our pastor,&rdquo;
+       continued the landlord proudly. &ldquo;For the Count himself has come and with
+      four horses, too, to get here the more quickly. His Reverence was a great
+      friend of the Countess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t make so much fuss over the pedlar and Betty,&rdquo; murmured the
+      cobbler, who suffered from a perpetual grouch. But he followed the others,
+      who paid their scores hastily and went out into the streets that they
+      might watch from a distance at least what was going on in the rectory. The
+      landlord bustled about the inn to have everything in readiness in case the
+      gentlemen should honour him by taking a meal, and perhaps even lodgings,
+      at his house. At the gate of the rectory the coachman and the maid Liska
+      stood to receive the newcomers, just as five o&rsquo;clock was striking from the
+      steeple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It should have been still quite light, but it was already dusk, for the
+      clouds hung heavy. The rain had ceased, but a heavy wind came up which
+      tore the delicate petals of the blossoms from the fruit trees and strewed
+      them like snow on the ground beneath. The Count, who was the head of one
+      of the richest and most aristocratic families in Hungary, threw off his
+      heavy fur coat and hastened up the stairs at the top of which his old
+      friend and confidant, the venerable pastor, usually came to meet him.
+      To-day it was only the local magistrate who stood there, bowing deeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is incredible, incredible!&rdquo; exclaimed the Count.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, indeed, sir,&rdquo; said the man, leading the magnate through the
+      dining-room into the pastor&rsquo;s study, where, as far as could be seen, the
+      murder had been committed. They were joined by the district judge, who had
+      remained behind to give an order sending a carriage to the nearest railway
+      station. The judge, too, was serious and deeply shocked, for he also had
+      greatly admired and revered the old pastor. The stately rectory had been
+      the scene of many a jovial gathering when the lord of the manor had made
+      it a centre for a day&rsquo;s hunting with his friends. The bearers of some of
+      the proudest names in all Hungary had gathered in the high-arched rooms to
+      laugh with the venerable pastor and to sample the excellent wines in his
+      cellar. These wines, which the gentlemen themselves would send in as
+      presents to the master of the rectory, would be carefully preserved for
+      their own enjoyment. Not a landed proprietor for many leagues around but
+      knew and loved the old pastor, who had now so strangely disappeared under
+      such terrifying circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we might as well begin our examination,&rdquo; remarked the Count.
+      &ldquo;Although if Dr. Orszay&rsquo;s sharp eyes did not find anything, I doubt very
+      much if we will. You have asked the doctor to come here again, haven&rsquo;t
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, your Grace! As soon as I saw you coming I sent the sexton to the
+      asylum.&rdquo; Then the men went in again into the room which had been the scene
+      of the mysterious crime. The wind rattled the open window and blew out its
+      white curtains. It was already dark in the corners of the room, one could
+      see but indistinctly the carvings of the wainscoting. The light backs of
+      the books, or the gold letters on the darker bindings, made spots of
+      brightness in the gloom. The hideous pool of blood in the centre of the
+      floor was still plainly to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judging by the loss of blood, death must have come quickly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was no struggle, evidently, for everything in the room was in
+      perfect order when we entered it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is not even a chair misplaced. His Bible is there on the desk, he
+      may have been preparing for to-day&rsquo;s sermon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that is the case; because see, here are some notes in his
+      handwriting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count and Judge von Kormendy spoke these sentences at intervals as
+      they made their examination of the room. The local magistrate was able to
+      answer one or two simpler questions, but for the most part he could only
+      shrug his shoulders in helplessness. Nothing had been seen or heard that
+      was at all unusual during the night in the rectory. When the old
+      housekeeper was called up she could say nothing more than this. Indeed, it
+      was almost impossible for the old woman to say anything, her voice choked
+      with sobs at every second word. None of the household force had noticed
+      anything unusual, or could remember anything at all that would throw light
+      on this mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, sir, we might just as well sit down and wait for the
+      detective&rsquo;s arrival,&rdquo; said the judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are waiting for some one besides the doctor?&rdquo; asked the local
+      magistrate timidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, His Grace telegraphed to Budapest,&rdquo; answered the district judge,
+      looking at his watch. &ldquo;And if the train is on time, the man we are waiting
+      for ought to be here in an hour. You sent the carriage to the station,
+      didn&rsquo;t you? Is the driver reliable?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, he is a dependable man,&rdquo; said the old housekeeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Orszay entered the room just then and the Count introduced him to the
+      district judge, who was still a stranger to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear, Count, that our eyes will serve but little in discovering the
+      truth of this mystery,&rdquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nobleman nodded. &ldquo;I agree with you,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;And I have sent for
+      sharper eyes than either yours or mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor looked his question, and the Count continued: &ldquo;When the news
+      came to me I telegraphed to Pest for a police detective, telling them that
+      the case was peculiar and urgent. I received an answer as I stopped at the
+      station on my way here. This is it: &lsquo;Detective Joseph Muller from Vienna
+      in Budapest by chance. Have sent him to take your case.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muller?&rdquo; exclaimed Dr. Orszay. &ldquo;Can it be the celebrated Muller, the most
+      famous detective of the Austrian police? That would indeed be a blessing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope and believe that it is,&rdquo; said the Count gravely. &ldquo;I have heard of
+      this man and we need such a one here that we may find the source of these
+      many misfortunes which have overwhelmed our peaceful village for two years
+      past. It is indeed a stroke of good luck that has led a man of such gifts
+      into our neighbourhood at a time when he is so greatly needed. I believe
+      personally that it is the same person or persons who have been the
+      perpetrators of all these outrages and I intend once for all to put a stop
+      to it, let it cost what it may.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If any one can discover the truth it will be Muller,&rdquo; said the district
+      judge. &ldquo;It was I who told the Count how fortunate we were that this man,
+      who is known to the police throughout Austria and far beyond the borders
+      of our kingdom, should have chanced to be in Budapest and free to come to
+      us when we called. You and I&rdquo;&mdash;he turned with a smile to the local
+      magistrate&mdash;&ldquo;you and I can get away with the usual cases of local
+      brutality hereabouts. But the cunning that is at the bottom of these
+      crimes is one too many for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men had taken their places around the great dining-table. The old
+      housekeeper had crept out again, her terror making her forget her usual
+      hospitality. And indeed it would not have occurred to the guests to ask or
+      even to wish for any refreshment. The maid brought a lamp, which sent its
+      weak rays scarcely beyond the edges of the big table. The four men sat in
+      silence for some time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it would be useless to ask who has been coming and going from
+      the rectory the last few days?&rdquo; began the Count.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, indeed, sir,&rdquo; said the district judge with a sigh. &ldquo;For if this
+      murderer is the same who committed the other crimes he must live here in
+      or near the village, and therefore must be known to all and not likely to
+      excite suspicion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon, sir,&rdquo; put in the doctor. &ldquo;There must be at least two
+      of them. One man alone could not have carried off the farm hand who was
+      killed to the swamp where his body was found. Nor could one man alone have
+      taken away the bloody body of the pastor. Our venerable friend was a man
+      of size and weight, as you know, and one man alone could not have dragged
+      his body from the room without leaving an easily seen trail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The judge blushed, but he nodded in affirmation to the doctor&rsquo;s words.
+      This thought had not occurred to him before. In fact, the judge was more
+      notable for his good will and his love of justice rather than for his keen
+      intelligence. He was as well aware of this as was any one else, and he was
+      heartily glad that the Count had sent to the capital for reinforcements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some time more passed in deep silence. Each of the men was occupied with
+      his own thoughts. A sigh broke the silence now and then, and a slight
+      movement when one or the other drew out his watch or raised his head to
+      look at the door. Finally, the sound of a carriage outside was heard. The
+      men sprang up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The driver&rsquo;s voice was heard, then steps which ascended the stairs lowly
+      and lightly, audible only because the stillness was so great.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened and a small, slight, smooth-shaven man with a gentle face
+      and keen grey eyes stood on the threshold. &ldquo;I am Joseph Muller,&rdquo; he said
+      with a low, soft voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The four men in the room looked at him in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This simple-looking individual is the man that every one is afraid of?&rdquo;
+       thought the Count, as he walked forward and held out his hand to the
+      stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sent for you, Mr. Muller,&rdquo; said the magnate, conscious of his stately
+      size and appearance, as well as of his importance in the presence of a
+      personage who so little looked what his great fame might have led one to
+      expect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you are Count &mdash;&mdash;?&rdquo; answered Muller gently. &ldquo;I was in
+      Budapest, having just finished a difficult case which took me there. They
+      told me that a mysterious crime had happened in your neighbourhood, and
+      sent me here to take charge of it. You will pardon any ignorance I may
+      show as a stranger to this locality. I will do my best and it may be
+      possible that I can help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count introduced the other gentlemen in order and they sat down again
+      at the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now what is it you want me for, Count?&rdquo; asked Muller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a murder committed in this house,&rdquo; answered the Count.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is the victim?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our pastor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How was he killed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do not know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not a physician, then?&rdquo; asked Muller, turning to Orszay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I am,&rdquo; answered the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The body is missing,&rdquo; said Orszay, somewhat sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Missing?&rdquo; Muller became greatly interested. &ldquo;Will you please lead me to
+      the scene of the crime?&rdquo; he said, rising from his chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others led him into the next room, the magistrate going ahead with a
+      lamp. The judge called for more lights and the group stood around the pool
+      of blood on the floor of the study. Muller&rsquo;s arms were crossed on his
+      breast as he stood looking down at the hideous spot. There was no terror
+      in his eyes, as in those of the others, but only a keen attention and a
+      lively interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who has been in this room since the discovery?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor replied that only the servants of the immediate household, the
+      notary, the magistrate, and himself, then later the Count and the district
+      judge entered the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are quite certain that no one else has been in here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no one else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you kindly send for the three servants?&rdquo; The magistrate left the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who else lives in the house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sexton and the dairymaid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And no one else has left the house to-day or has entered it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one. The main door has been watched all day by a gendarme.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there but one door out of this room?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, there is a small door beside that bookcase.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where does it lead to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It leads to a passageway at the end of which there is a stair down into
+      the vestry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller gave an exclamation of surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The vestry as well as the church have neither of them been opened on the
+      side toward the street.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The church or the vestry, you mean,&rdquo; corrected Muller. &ldquo;How many doors
+      have they on the street side?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One each.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The locks on these doors were in good condition?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they were untouched.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was there anything stolen from the church?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, nothing that we could see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was the pastor rich?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, he was almost a poor man, for he gave away all that he had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you were his patron, Count.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was his friend. He was the confidential adviser of myself and family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This would mean rich presents now and then, would it not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that is not the case. Our venerable pastor would take nothing for
+      himself. He would accept no presents but gifts of money for his poor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you do not believe this to have been a murder for the sake of
+      robbery?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. There was nothing disturbed in any part of the house, no drawers or
+      cupboards broken open at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller smiled. &ldquo;I have heard it said that your romantic Hungarian bandits
+      will often be satisfied with the small booty they may find in the pocket
+      or on the person of their victim.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right, Mr. Muller. But that is only when they can find nothing
+      else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or perhaps if it is a case of revenge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It cannot be revenge in this case!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pastor was greatly loved?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was loved and revered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By every one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By every one!&rdquo; the four men answered at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller was still a while. His eyes were veiled and his face thoughtful.
+      Finally he raised his head. &ldquo;There has been nothing moved or changed in
+      this room?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;neither here nor anywhere else in the house or the church,&rdquo;
+       answered the local magistrate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is good. Now I would like to question the servants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller had already started for the door, then he turned back into the room
+      and pointing toward the second door he asked: &ldquo;Is that door locked?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered the Count. &ldquo;I found it locked when I examined it myself a
+      short time ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was locked on the inside?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, locked on the inside.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. Then we have nothing more to do here for the time being. Let
+      us go back into the dining-room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men returned to the dining-room, Muller last, for he stopped to lock
+      the door of the study and put the key in his pocket. Then he began his
+      examination of the servants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old housekeeper, who, as usual, was the first to rise in the
+      household, had also, as usual, rung the bell to waken the other servants.
+      Then when Liska came downstairs she had sent her up to the pastor&rsquo;s room.
+      His bedroom was to the right of the dining-room. Liska had, as usual,
+      knocked on the door exactly at seven o&rsquo;clock and continued knocking for
+      some few minutes without receiving any answer. Slightly alarmed, the girl
+      had gone back and told the housekeeper that the pastor did not answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the old woman asked the coachman to go up and see if anything was the
+      matter with the reverend gentleman. The man returned in a few moments,
+      pale and trembling in every limb and apparently struck dumb by fright. He
+      motioned the women to follow him, and all three crept up the stairs. The
+      coachman led them first to the pastor&rsquo;s bed, which was untouched, and then
+      to the pool of blood in his study. The sight of the latter frightened the
+      servants so much that they did not notice at first that there was no sign
+      of the pastor himself, whom they now knew must have been murdered. When
+      they finally came to themselves sufficiently to take some action, the man
+      hurried off to call the magistrate, and Liska ran to the asylum to fetch
+      the old doctor; the pastor&rsquo;s intimate friend. The aged housekeeper,
+      trembling in fear, crept back to her own room and sat there waiting the
+      return of the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the story of the early morning as told by the three servants, who
+      had already given their report in much the same words to the Count on his
+      arrival and also to the magistrate. There was no reason to doubt the words
+      of either the old housekeeper or of Janos, the coachman, who had served
+      for more than twenty years in the rectory and whose fidelity was known.
+      The girl Liska was scarcely eighteen, and her round childish face and big
+      eyes dimmed with tears, corroborated her story. When they had told Muller
+      all they knew, the detective sat stroking his chin, and looking
+      thoughtfully at the floor. Then he raised his head and said, in a tone of
+      calm friendliness: &ldquo;Well, good friends, this will do for to-night. Now, if
+      you will kindly give me a bite to eat and a glass of some light wine, I&rsquo;d
+      be very thankful. I have had no food since early this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The housekeeper and the maid disappeared, and Janos went to the stable to
+      harness the Count&rsquo;s trap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The magnate turned to the detective. &ldquo;I thank you once more that you have
+      come to us. I appreciate it greatly that a stranger to our part of the
+      country, like yourself, should give his time and strength to this problem
+      of our obscure little village.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing else calling me, sir,&rdquo; answered Muller. &ldquo;And the
+      Budapest police will explain to headquarters at Vienna if I do not return
+      at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you understand our tongue sufficiently to deal with these people
+      here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes; there will be no difficulty about that. I have hunted criminals
+      in Hungary before. And a case of this kind does not usually call for
+      disguises in which any accent would betray one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a strange profession,&rdquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One gets used to it&mdash;like everything else,&rdquo; answered Muller, with a
+      gentle smile. &ldquo;And now I have to thank you gentlemen for your confidence
+      in me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which I know you will justify,&rdquo; said the Count.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller shrugged his shoulders: &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t felt anything yet&mdash;but it
+      will come&mdash;there&rsquo;s something in the air.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Count smiled at his manner of expressing himself, but all four of the
+      men had already begun to feel sympathy and respect for this quiet-mannered
+      little person whose words were so few and whose voice was so gentle.
+      Something in his grey eyes and in the quiet determination of his manner
+      made them realise that he had won his fame honestly. With the enthusiasm
+      of his race the Hungarian Count pressed the detective&rsquo;s hand in a warm
+      grasp as he said: &ldquo;I know that we can trust in you. You will avenge the
+      death of my old friend and of those others who were killed here. The
+      doctor and the magistrate will tell you about them to-morrow. We two will
+      go home now. Telegraph us as soon as anything has happened. Every one in
+      the village will be ready to help you and of course you can call on me for
+      funds. Here is something to begin on.&rdquo; With these words the Count laid a
+      silk purse full of gold pieces on the table. One more pressure of the hand
+      and he was gone. The other men also left the room, following the Count&rsquo;s
+      lead in a cordial farewell of the detective. They also shared the
+      nobleman&rsquo;s feeling that now indeed, with this man to help them, could the
+      cloud of horror that had hung over the village for two years, and had
+      culminated in the present catastrophe, be lifted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excitement of the Count&rsquo;s departure had died away and the steps of the
+      other men on their way to the village had faded in the distance. There was
+      nothing now to be heard but the rustling of the leaves and the creaking of
+      the boughs as the trees bent before the onrush of the wind. Muller stood
+      alone, with folded arms, in the middle of the large room, letting his
+      sharp eyes wander about the circle of light thrown by the lamps. He was
+      glad to be alone&mdash;for only when he was alone could his brain do its
+      best work. He took up one of the lamps and opened the door to the room in
+      which, as far as could be known, the murder had been committed. He walked
+      in carefully and, setting the lamp on the desk, examined the articles
+      lying about on it. There was nothing of importance to be found there. An
+      open Bible and a sheet of paper with notes for the day&rsquo;s sermon lay on top
+      of the desk. In the drawers, none of which were locked, were official
+      papers, books, manuscripts of former sermons, and a few unimportant
+      personal notes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flame of the lamp flickered in the breeze that came from the open
+      window. But Muller did not close the casement. He wanted to leave
+      everything just as he had found it until daylight. When he saw that it was
+      impossible to leave the lamp there he took it up again and left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the use of being impatient?&rdquo; he said to himself. &ldquo;If I move about
+      in this poor light I will be sure to ruin some possible clue. For there
+      must be some clue left here. It is impossible for even the most practiced
+      criminal not to leave some trace of his presence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The detective returned to the dining-room, locking the study door
+      carefully behind him. The maid and the coachman returned, bringing in an
+      abundant supper, and Muller sat down to do justice to the many good things
+      on the tray. When the maid returned to take away the dishes she inquired
+      whether she should put the guest chamber in order for the detective. He
+      told her not to go to any trouble for his sake, that he would sleep in the
+      bed in the neighbouring room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You going to sleep in there?&rdquo; said the girl, horrified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my child, and I think I will sleep well to-night. I feel very
+      tired.&rdquo; Liska carried the things out, shaking her head in surprise at this
+      thin little man who did not seem to know what it was to be afraid. Half an
+      hour later the rectory was in darkness. Before he retired, Muller had made
+      a careful examination of the pastor&rsquo;s bedroom. Nothing was disturbed
+      anywhere, and it was evident that the priest had not made any preparations
+      for the night, but was still at work at his desk in the study when death
+      overtook him. When he came to this conclusion, the detective went to bed
+      and soon fell asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his little hut near the asylum gates, shepherd Janci slept as sound as
+      usual. But he was dreaming and he spoke in his sleep. There was no one to
+      hear him, for his faithful Margit was snoring loudly. Snatches of
+      sentences and broken words came from Janci&rsquo;s lips: &ldquo;The hand&mdash;the big
+      hand&mdash;I see it&mdash;at his throat&mdash;the face&mdash;the yellow
+      face&mdash;it laughs&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning the children on their way to school crept past the rectory
+      with wide eyes and open mouths. And the grown people spoke in lower tones
+      when their work led them past the handsome old house. It had once been
+      their pride, but now it was a place of horror to them. The old housekeeper
+      had succumbed to her fright and was very ill. Liska went about her work
+      silently, and the farm servants walked more heavily and chattered less
+      than they had before. The hump-backed sexton, who had not been allowed to
+      enter the church and therefore had nothing to do, made an early start for
+      the inn, where he spent most of the day telling what little he knew to the
+      many who made an excuse to follow him there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only calm and undisturbed person in the rectory household was Muller.
+      He had made a thorough examination of the entire scene of the murder, but
+      had not found anything at all. Of one thing alone was he certain: the
+      murderer had come through the hidden passageway from the church. There
+      were two reasons to believe this, one of which might possibly not be
+      sufficient, but the other was conclusive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heavy armchair before the desk, the chair on which the pastor was
+      presumably sitting when the murderer entered, was half turned around,
+      turned in just such a way as it would have been had the man who was
+      sitting there suddenly sprung up in excitement or surprise. The chair was
+      pushed back a step from the desk and turned towards the entrance to the
+      passageway. Those who had been in the room during the day had reported
+      that they had not touched any one of the articles of furniture, therefore
+      the position of the chair was the same that had been given it by the man
+      who had sat in it, by the murdered pastor himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course there was always the possibility that some one had moved the
+      chair without realising it. This clue, therefore, could not be looked upon
+      as an absolutely certain one had it stood alone. But there was other
+      evidence far more important. The great pool of blood was just half-way
+      between the door of the passage and the armchair. It was here, therefore,
+      that the attack had taken place. The pastor could not have turned in this
+      direction in the hope of flight, for there was nothing here to give him
+      shelter, no weapon that he could grasp, not even a cane. He must have
+      turned in this direction to meet and greet the invader who had entered his
+      room in this unusual manner. Turned to meet him as a brave man would, with
+      no other weapon than the sacredness of his calling and his age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this had not been enough to protect the venerable priest. The murderer
+      must have made his thrust at once and his victim had sunk down dying on
+      the floor of the room in which he had spent so many hours of quiet study,
+      in which he had brought comfort and given advice to so many anxious
+      hearts; for dying he must have been&mdash;it would be impossible for a man
+      to lose so much blood and live.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The struggle,&rdquo; thought the detective, &ldquo;but was there a struggle?&rdquo; He
+      looked about the room again, but could see nothing that showed disorder
+      anywhere in its immaculate neatness. No, there could have been no
+      struggle. It must have been a quick knife thrust and death at once. &ldquo;Not a
+      shot?&rdquo; No, a shot would have been heard by the night watchman walking the
+      streets near the church. The night was quiet, the window open. Some one in
+      the village would have heard the noise of a shot. And it was not likely
+      that the old housekeeper who slept in the room immediately below, slept
+      the light sleep of the aged would have failed to have heard the firing of
+      a pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller took a chair and sat down directly in front of the pool of blood,
+      looking at it carefully. Suddenly he bowed his head deeper. He had caught
+      sight of a fine thread of the red fluid which had been drawn out for about
+      a foot or two in the direction towards the door to the dining-room. What
+      did that mean? Did it mean that the murderer went out through that door,
+      dragging something after him that made this delicate line? Muller bent
+      down still deeper. The sun shone brightly on the floor, sending its clear
+      rays obliquely through the window. The sharp eyes which now covered every
+      inch of the yellow-painted floor discovered something else. They
+      discovered that this red thread curved slightly and had a continuation in
+      a fine scratch in the paint of the floor. Muller followed up this scratch
+      and it led him over towards the window and then back again in wide curves,
+      then out again under the desk and finally, growing weaker and weaker, it
+      came back to the neighbourhood of the pool of blood, but on the opposite
+      side of it. Muller got down on his hands and knees to follow up the
+      scratch. He did not notice the discomfort of his position, his eyes shone
+      in excitement and a deep flush glowed in his cheeks. Also, he began to
+      whistle softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joseph Muller, the bloodhound of the Austrian police, had found a clue, a
+      clue that soon would bring him to the trail he was seeking. He did not
+      know yet what he could do with his clue. But this much he knew; sooner or
+      later this scratch in the floor would lead him to the murderer. The trail
+      might be long and devious; but he would follow it and at its end would be
+      success. He knew that this scratch had been made after the murder was
+      committed; this was proved by the blood that marked its beginning. And it
+      could not have been made by any of those who entered the room during the
+      day because by that time the blood had dried. This strange streak in the
+      floor, with its weird curves and spirals, could have been made only by the
+      murderer. But how? With what instrument? There was the riddle which must
+      be solved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Muller, making another careful examination of the floor, found
+      something else. It was something that might be utterly unimportant or
+      might be of great value. It was a tiny bit of hardened lacquer which he
+      found on the floor beside one of the legs of the desk. It was rounded out,
+      with sharp edges, and coloured grey with a tiny zigzag of yellow on its
+      surface. Muller lifted it carefully and looked at it keenly. This tiny bit
+      of lacquer had evidently been knocked off from some convex object, but it
+      was impossible to tell at the moment just what sort of an object it might
+      have been. There are so many different things which are customarily
+      covered with lacquer. However, further examination brought him down to a
+      narrower range of subjects. For on the inside of the lacquer he found a
+      shred of reddish wood fibre. It must have been a wooden object, therefore,
+      from which the lacquer came, and the wood had been of reddish tinge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller pondered the matter for a little while longer. Then he placed his
+      discovery carefully in the pastor&rsquo;s emptied tobacco-box, and dropped the
+      box in his own pocket. He closed the window and the door to the
+      dining-room, lit a lamp, and entered the passageway leading to the vestry.
+      It was a short passageway, scarcely more than a dozen paces long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The walls were whitewashed, the floor tiled and the entire passage shone
+      in neatness. Muller held the light of his lamp to every inch of it, but
+      there was nothing to show that the criminal had gone through here with the
+      body of his victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The criminal&rdquo;&mdash;Muller still thought of only one. His long experience
+      had taught him that the most intricate crimes were usually committed by
+      one man only. The strength necessary for such a crime as this did not
+      deceive him either. He knew that in extraordinary moments extraordinary
+      strength will come to the one who needs it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now passed down the steps leading into the vestry. There was no trace
+      of any kind here either. The door into the vestry was not locked. It was
+      seldom locked, they had told him, for the vestry itself was closed by a
+      huge carved portal with a heavy ornamented iron lock that could be opened
+      only with the greatest noise and trouble. This door was locked and closed
+      as it had been since yesterday morning. Everything in the vestry was in
+      perfect order; the priest&rsquo;s garments and the censers all in their places.
+      Muller assured himself of this before he left the little room. He then
+      opened the glass door that led down by a few steps into the church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a beautiful old church, and it was a rich church also. It was built
+      in the older Gothic style, and its heavy, broad-arched walls, its massive
+      columns would have made it look cold and bare had not handsome tapestries,
+      the gift of the lady of the manor, covered the walls. Fine old pictures
+      hung here and there above the altars, and handsome stained glass windows
+      broke the light that fell into the high vaulted interior. There were three
+      great altars in the church, all of them richly decorated. The main altar
+      stood isolated in the choir. In the open space behind it was the entrance
+      to the crypt, now veiled in a mysterious twilight. Heavy silver
+      candlesticks, three on a side, stood on the altar. The pale gold of the
+      tabernacle door gleamed between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller walked through the silent church, in which even his light steps
+      resounded uncannily. He looked into each of the pews, into the
+      confessionals, he walked around all the columns, he climbed up into the
+      pulpit, he did everything that the others had done before him yesterday.
+      And as with them, he found nothing that would indicate that the murderer
+      had spent any time in the church. Finally he turned back once more to the
+      main altar on his way out. But he did not leave the church as he intended.
+      His last look at the altar had showed him something that attracted his
+      attention and he walked up the three steps to examine it more closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What he had seen was something unusual about one of the silver
+      candlesticks. These candlesticks had three feet, and five of them were
+      placed in such a way that the two front feet were turned toward the
+      spectator. But on the end candlestick nearest Muller the single foot
+      projected out to the front of the altar. This candlestick therefore had
+      been set down hastily, not placed carefully in the order of things as were
+      the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And not only this. The heavy wax candle which was in the candlestick was
+      burned down about a finger&rsquo;s breadth more than the others, for these were
+      all exactly of a height. Muller bent still nearer to the candlestick, but
+      he saw that the dim light in the church was not sufficient. He went to one
+      of the smaller side altars, took a candle from there, lit it with one of
+      the matches that he found in his own pocket and returned with the burning
+      candle to the main altar. The steps leading up to this altar were covered
+      by a large rug with a white ground and a pattern of flowers. Looking
+      carefully at it the detective saw a tiny brown spot, the mark of a burn,
+      upon one of the white surfaces. Beside it lay a half used match.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walking around this carefully, Muller approached the candlestick that
+      interested him and holding up his light he examined every inch of its
+      surface. He found what he was looking for. There were dark red spots
+      between the rough edges of the silver ornamentation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the body is somewhere around here,&rdquo; thought the detective and came
+      down from the steps, still holding the burning candle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked slowly to the back of the altar. There was a little table there
+      such as held the sacred dishes for the communion service, and the little
+      carpet-covered steps which the sexton put out for the pastor when he took
+      the monstrance from the high-built tabernacle. That was all that was to be
+      seen in the dark corner behind the altar. Holding his candle close to the
+      floor Muller discovered an iron ring fastened to one of the big stone
+      flags. This must be the entrance to the crypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller tried to raise the flag and was astonished to find how easily it
+      came up. It was a square of reddish marble, the same with which the entire
+      floor of the church was tiled. This flag was very thin and could easily be
+      raised and placed back against the wall. Muller took up his candle, too
+      greatly excited to stop to get a stick for it. He felt assured that now he
+      would soon be able to solve at least a part of the mystery. He climbed
+      down the steps carefully and found that they led into the crypt as he
+      supposed. They were kept spotlessly clean, as was the entire crypt as far
+      as he could see it by the light of his flickering candle. He was not
+      surprised to discover that the air was perfectly pure here. There must be
+      windows or ventilators somewhere, this he knew from the way his candle
+      behaved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ancient vault had a high arched ceiling and heavy massive pillars. It
+      was a subterranean repetition of the church above. There had evidently
+      been a convent attached to this church at one time; for here stood a row
+      of simple wooden coffins all exactly alike, bearing each one upon its lid
+      a roughly painted cross surrounded by a wreath. Thus were buried the monks
+      of days long past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller walked slowly through the rows of coffins looking eagerly to each
+      side. Suddenly he stopped and stood still. His hand did not tremble but
+      his thin face was pale&mdash;pale as that face which looked up at him out
+      of one of the coffins. The lid of the coffin stood up against the wall and
+      Muller saw that there were several other empty ones further on, waiting
+      for their silent occupants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The body in the open coffin before which Muller stood was the body of the
+      man who had been missing since the day previous. He lay there quite
+      peacefully, his hands crossed over his breast, his eyes closed, a line of
+      pain about his lips. In the crossed fingers was a little bunch of dark
+      yellow roses. At the first glance one might almost have thought that
+      loving hands had laid the old pastor in his coffin. But the red stain on
+      the white cloth about his throat, and the bloody disorder of his
+      snow-white hair contrasted sadly with the look of peace on the dead face.
+      Under his head was a white silk cushion, one of the cushions from the
+      altar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller stood looking down for some time at this poor victim of a strange
+      crime, then he turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wanted to know one thing more: how the murderer had left the crypt. The
+      flame of his candle told him, for it nearly went out in a gust of wind
+      that came down the opening right above him. This was a window about three
+      or four feet from the floor, protected by rusty iron bars which had been
+      sawed through, leaving the opening free. It was a small window, but it was
+      large enough to allow a man of much greater size than Muller to pass
+      through it. The detective blew out his candle and climbed up onto the
+      window sill. He found himself outside, in a corner of the churchyard. A
+      thicket of heavy bushes grown up over neglected graves completely hid the
+      opening through which he had come. There were thorns on these bushes and
+      also a few scattered roses, dark yellow roses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller walked thoughtfully through the churchyard. The sexton sat huddled
+      in an unhappy heap at the gate. He looked up in alarm as he saw the
+      detective walking towards him. Something in the stranger&rsquo;s face told the
+      little hunchback that he had made a discovery. The sexton sprang up, his
+      lips did not dare utter the question that his eyes asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have found him,&rdquo; said the detective gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hunchback sexton staggered, then recovered himself, and hurried away
+      to fetch the magistrate and the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later the murdered pastor lay in state in the chief apartment of
+      his home, surrounded by burning candles and high-heaped masses of flowers.
+      But he still lay in the simple convent coffin and the little bunch of
+      roses which his murderer had placed between his stiffening fingers had not
+      been touched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days later the pastor was buried. The Count and his family led the
+      train of numerous mourners and among the last was Muller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A day or two after the funeral the detective sauntered slowly through the
+      main street of the village. He was not in a very good humour, his answer
+      to the greeting of those who passed him was short. The children avoided
+      him, for with the keenness of their kind they recognised the fact that
+      this usually gentle little man was not in possession of his habitual calm
+      temper. One group of boys, playing with a top, did not notice his coming
+      and Muller stopped behind them to look on. Suddenly a sharp whistle was
+      heard and the boys looked up from their play, surprised at seeing the
+      stranger behind them. His eyes were gleaming, and his cheeks were flushed,
+      and a few bars of a merry tune came in a keen whistle from his lips as he
+      watched the spirals made by the spinning top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the boys could stop their play the detective had left the group and
+      hastened onward to the little shop. He left it again in eager haste after
+      having made his purchase, and hurried back to the rectory. The shop-keeper
+      stood in the doorway looking in surprise at this grown man who came to buy
+      a top. And at home in the rectory the old housekeeper listened in equal
+      surprise to the humming noise over her head. She thought at first it might
+      be a bee that had got in somehow. Then she realised that it was not quite
+      the same noise, and having already concluded that it was of no use to be
+      surprised at anything this strange guest might do, she continued reading
+      her scriptures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upstairs in the pastor&rsquo;s study, Muller sat in the armchair attentively
+      watching the gyrations of a spinning top. The little toy, started at a
+      certain point, drew a line exactly parallel to the scratch on the floor
+      that had excited his thoughts and absorbed them day and night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a top&mdash;a top&rdquo; repeated the detective to himself again and
+      again. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see why I didn&rsquo;t think of that right away. Why, of course,
+      nothing else could have drawn such a perfect curve around the room,
+      unhindered by the legs of the desk. Only I don&rsquo;t see how a toy like that
+      could have any connection with this cruel and purposeless murder. Why,
+      only a fool&mdash;or a madman&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller sprang up from his chair and again a sharp shrill whistle came from
+      his lips. &ldquo;A madman!&mdash;&rdquo; he repeated, beating his own forehead. &ldquo;It
+      could only have been a madman who committed this murder! And the pastor
+      was not the first, there were two other murders here within a
+      comparatively short time. I think I will take advantage of Dr. Orszay&rsquo;s
+      invitation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour later Muller and the doctor sat together in a summer-house,
+      from the windows of which one could see the park surrounding the asylum to
+      almost its entire extent. The park was arranged with due regard to its
+      purpose. The eye could sweep through it unhindered. There were no bushes
+      except immediately along the high wall. Otherwise there were beautiful
+      lawns, flower beds and groups of fine old trees with tall trunks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As would be natural in visiting such a place Muller had induced the doctor
+      to talk about his patients. Dr. Orszay was an excellent talker and
+      possessed the power of painting a personality for his listeners. He was
+      pleased and flattered by the evident interest with which the detective
+      listened to his remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then your patients are all quite harmless?&rdquo; asked Muller thoughtfully,
+      when the doctor came to a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, all quite harmless. Of course, there is the man who strangely enough
+      considers himself the reincarnation of the famous French murderer, the
+      goldsmith Cardillac, who, as you remember, kept all Paris in a fervour of
+      excitement by his crimes during the reign of Louis XIV. But in spite of
+      his weird mania this man is the most good-natured of any. He has been shut
+      up in his room for several days now. He was a mechanician by trade, living
+      in Budapest, and an unsuccessful invention turned his mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he a large, powerful man?&rdquo; asked Muller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Orszay looked a bit surprised. &ldquo;Why do you ask that? He does happen to
+      be a large man of considerable strength, but in spite of it I have no fear
+      of him. I have an attendant who is invaluable to me, a man of such
+      strength that even the fiercest of them cannot overcome him, and yet with
+      a mind and a personal magnetism which they cannot resist. He can always
+      master our patients mentally and physically&mdash;most of them are afraid
+      of him and they know that they must do as he says. There is something in
+      his very glance which has the power to paralyse even healthy nerves, for
+      it shows the strength of will possessed by this man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is the name of this invaluable attendant?&rdquo; asked Muller with a
+      strange smile which the doctor took to be slightly ironical.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gyuri Kovacz. You are amused at my enthusiasm? But consider my position
+      here. I am an old man and have never been a strong man. At my age I would
+      not have strength enough to force that little woman there&mdash;she thinks
+      herself possessed and is quite cranky at times&mdash;to go to her own room
+      when she doesn&rsquo;t want to. And do you see that man over there in the blue
+      blouse? He is an excellent gardener but he believes himself to be
+      Napoleon, and when he has his acute attacks I would be helpless to control
+      him were it not for Gyuri.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are not afraid of Cardillac?&rdquo; interrupted Muller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in the least. He is as good-natured as a child and as confiding. I
+      can let him walk around here as much as he likes. If it were not for the
+      absurd nonsense that he talks when he has one of his attacks, and which
+      frightens those who do not understand him, I could let him go free
+      altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you never let him leave the asylum grounds?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes. I take him out with me very frequently. He is a man of
+      considerable education and a very clever talker. It is quite a pleasure to
+      be with him. That was the opinion of my poor friend also, my poor murdered
+      friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pastor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pastor. He often invited Cardillac to come to the rectory with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed. Then Cardillac knew the inside of the rectory?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. The pastor used to lend him books and let him choose them himself
+      from the library shelves. The people in the village are very kind to my
+      poor patients here. I have long since had the habit of taking some of the
+      quieter ones with me down into the village and letting the people become
+      acquainted with them. It is good for both parties. It gives the patients
+      some little diversion, and it takes away the worst of the senseless fear
+      these peasants had at first of the asylum and its inmates. Cardillac in
+      particular is always welcome when he comes, for he brings the children all
+      sorts of toys that he makes in his cell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The detective had listened attentively and once his eyes flashed and his
+      lips shut tight as if to keep in the betraying whistle. Then he asked
+      calmly: &ldquo;But the patients are only allowed to go out when you accompany
+      them, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no; the attendants take them out sometimes. I prefer, however, to let
+      them go only with Gyuri, for I can depend upon him more than upon any of
+      the others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then he and Cardillac have been out together occasionally?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, quite frequently. But&mdash;pardon me&mdash;this is almost like
+      a cross-examination.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon, doctor, it&rsquo;s a bad habit of mine. One gets so
+      accustomed to it in my profession.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it you want?&rdquo; asked Doctor Orszay, turning to a fine-looking
+      young man of superb build, who entered just then and stood by the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I just wanted to announce, sir, that No. 302 is quiet again!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;302 is Cardillac himself, Mr. Muller, or to give him his right name,
+      Lajos Varna,&rdquo; explained the doctor turning to his guest. &ldquo;He is the 302nd
+      patient who has been received here in these twenty years. Then Cardillac
+      is quiet again?&rdquo; he asked, looking up at the young giant. &ldquo;I am glad of
+      that. You can announce our visit to him. This gentleman wants to inspect
+      the asylum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller realised that this was the attendant Gyuri, and he looked at him
+      attentively. He was soon clear in his own mind that this remarkably
+      handsome man did not please him, in fact awoke in him a feeling of
+      repulsion. The attendant&rsquo;s quiet, almost cat-like movements were in
+      strange contrast to the massivity of his superb frame, and his large round
+      eyes, shaped for open, honest glances, were shifty and cunning. They
+      seemed to be asking &ldquo;Are you trying to discover anything about me?&rdquo;
+       coupled with a threat. &ldquo;For your own sake you had better not do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the young man had left the room Muller rose hastily and walked up and
+      down several times. His face was flushed and his lips tight set. Suddenly
+      he exclaimed: &ldquo;I do not like this Gyuri.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Orszay looked up astonished. &ldquo;There are many others who do not like
+      him&mdash;most of his fellow-warders for instance, and all of the
+      patients. I think there must be something in the contrast of such quiet
+      movements with such a big body that gets on people&rsquo;s nerves. But consider,
+      Mr. Muller, that the man&rsquo;s work would naturally make him a little
+      different from other people. I have known Gyuri for five years as a
+      faithful and unassuming servant, always willing and ready for any duty,
+      however difficult or dangerous. He has but one fault&mdash;if I may call
+      it such&mdash;that is that he has a mistress who is known to be mercenary
+      and hard-hearted. She lives in a neighbouring village.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For five years, you say? And how long has Cardillac been here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cardillac? He has been here for almost three years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For almost three years, and is it not almost three years&mdash;&rdquo; Muller
+      interrupted himself. &ldquo;Are we quite alone? Is no one listening?&rdquo; The doctor
+      nodded, greatly surprised, and the detective continued almost in a
+      whisper, &ldquo;and it is just about three years now that there have been
+      committed, at intervals, three terrible crimes notable from the cleverness
+      with which they were carried out, and from the utter impossibility,
+      apparently, of discovering the perpetrator.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Orszay sprang up. His face flushed and then grew livid, and he put his
+      hand to his forehead. Then he forced a smile and said in a voice that
+      trembled in spite of himself: &ldquo;Mr. Muller, your imagination is wonderful.
+      And which of these two do you think it is that has committed these crimes&mdash;the
+      perpetrator of which you have come here to find?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell you that later. I must speak to No. 302 first, and I must
+      speak to him in the presence of yourself and Gyuri.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The detective&rsquo;s deep gravity was contagious. Dr. Orszay had sufficiently
+      controlled himself to remember what he had heard in former days, and just
+      now recently from the district judge about this man&rsquo;s marvellous deeds. He
+      realised that when Muller said a thing, no matter how extravagant it might
+      sound, it was worth taking seriously. This realisation brought great
+      uneasiness and grief to the doctor&rsquo;s heart, for he had grown fond of both
+      of the men on whom terrible suspicion was cast by such an authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller himself was uneasy, but the gloom that had hung over him for the
+      past day or two had vanished. The impenetrable darkness that had
+      surrounded the mystery of the pastor&rsquo;s murder had gotten on his nerves. He
+      was not accustomed to work so long over a problem without getting some
+      light on it. But now, since the chance watching of the spinning top in the
+      street had given him his first inkling of the trail, he was following it
+      up to a clear issue. The eagerness, the blissful vibrating of every nerve
+      that he always felt at this stage of the game, was on him again. He knew
+      that from now on what was still to be done would be easy. Hitherto his
+      mind had been made up on one point; that one man alone was concerned in
+      the crime. Now he understood the possibility that there might have been
+      two, the harmless mechanician who fancied himself a dangerous murderer,
+      and the handsome young giant with the evil eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men stood looking at each other in a silence that was almost
+      hostile. Had this stranger come to disturb the peace of the refuge for the
+      unfortunate and to prove that Dr. Orszay, the friend of all the village,
+      had unwittingly been giving shelter to such criminals?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we go now?&rdquo; asked the detective finally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish it, sir,&rdquo; answered the doctor in a tone that was decidedly
+      cool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller held out his hand. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let us be foolish, doctor. If you should
+      find yourself terribly deceived, and I should have been the means of
+      proving it, promise me that you will not be angry with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Orszay pressed the offered hand with a deep sigh. He realised the other&rsquo;s
+      position and knew it was his duty to give him every possible assistance.
+      &ldquo;What is there for me to do now?&rdquo; he asked sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must see that all the patients are shut up in their cells so that the
+      other attendants are at our disposal if we need them. Varna&rsquo;s room has
+      barred windows, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I suppose also that it has but one door. I believe you told me that
+      your asylum was built on the cell system.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is but one door to the room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let the four other attendants stand outside this door. Gyuri will be
+      inside with us. Tell the men outside that they are to seize and hold
+      whomever I shall designate to them. I will call them in by a whistle. You
+      can trust your people?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I have my revolver,&rdquo; said Muller calmly, &ldquo;and now we can go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the room together, and found Gyuri waiting for them a little
+      further along the corridor. &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you well, sir?&rdquo; the attendant asked
+      the doctor, with an anxious note in his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man&rsquo;s anxiety was not feigned. He was really a faithful servant in his
+      devotion to the old doctor, although Muller had not misjudged him when he
+      decided that this young giant was capable of anything. Good and evil often
+      lie so close together in the human heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor&rsquo;s emotion prevented him from speaking, and the detective
+      answered in his place. &ldquo;It is a sudden indisposition,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Lead me
+      to No. 302, who is waiting for us, I suppose. The doctor wants to lie down
+      a moment in his own room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gyuri glanced distrustfully at this man whom he had met for the first time
+      to-day, but who was no stranger to him&mdash;for he had already learned
+      the identity of the guest in the rectory. Then he turned his eyes on his
+      master. The latter nodded and said: &ldquo;Take the gentleman to Varna&rsquo;s room. I
+      will follow shortly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cell to which they went was the first one at the head of the
+      staircase. &ldquo;Extremely convenient,&rdquo; thought Muller to himself. It was a
+      large room, comfortably furnished and filled now with the red glow of the
+      setting sun. A turning-lathe stood by the window and an elderly man was at
+      work at it. Gyuri called to him and he turned and rose when he saw a
+      stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lajos Varna was a tall, loose-jointed man with sallow skin and tired eyes.
+      He gave only a hasty glance at his visitor, then looked at Gyuri. The
+      expression in his eyes as he turned them on those of the warder was like
+      the look in the eyes of a well-trained dog when it watches its master&rsquo;s
+      face. Gyuri&rsquo;s brows were drawn close together and his mouth set tight to a
+      narrow line. His eyes fairly bored themselves into the patient&rsquo;s eyes with
+      an expression like that of a hypnotiser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller knew now what he wanted to know. This young man understood how to
+      bend the will of others, even the will of a sick mind, to his own desires.
+      The little silent scene he had watched had lasted just the length of time
+      it had taken the detective to walk through the room and hold out his hand
+      to the patient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to disturb you, Mr. Varna,&rdquo; he said in a friendly tone, with
+      a motion towards the bench from which the mechanician had just arisen.
+      Varna sat down again, obedient as a child. He was not always so
+      apparently, for Muller saw a red mark over the fingers of one hand that
+      was evidently the mark of a blow. Gyuri was not very choice in the methods
+      by which he controlled the patients confided to his care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I sit down also?&rdquo; asked Muller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varna pushed forward a chair. His movements were like those of an
+      automaton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now tell me how you like it here?&rdquo; began the detective. Varna
+      answered with a low soft voice, &ldquo;Oh, I like it very much, sir.&rdquo; As he
+      spoke he looked up at Gyuri, whose eyes still bore their commanding
+      expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They treat you kindly here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The doctor is very good to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, the doctor is so good!&rdquo; Varna&rsquo;s dull eyes brightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the others are good to you also?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes.&rdquo; The momentary gleam in the sad eye had vanished again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did you get this red scar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The patient became uneasy, he moved anxiously on his chair and looked up
+      at Gyuri. It was evident that he realised there would be more red marks if
+      he told the truth to this stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller did not insist upon an answer. &ldquo;You are uneasy and nervous
+      sometimes, aren&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, I have been&mdash;nervous&mdash;lately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they don&rsquo;t let you go out at such times?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I&mdash;no, I may not go out at such times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the doctor takes you with him sometimes&mdash;the doctor or Gyuri?&rdquo;
+       asked the detective.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t had him out with me for weeks,&rdquo; interrupted the attendant. He
+      seemed particularly anxious to have the &ldquo;for weeks&rdquo; clearly heard by this
+      inconvenient questioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller dropped this subject and took up another. &ldquo;They tell me you are
+      very fond of children, and I can see that you are making toys for them
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I love children, and I am so glad they are not afraid of me.&rdquo; These
+      words were spoken with more warmth and greater interest than anything the
+      man had yet said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And they tell me that you take gifts with you for the children every time
+      you go down to the village. This is pretty work here, and it must be a
+      pleasant diversion for you.&rdquo; Muller had taken up a dainty little
+      spinning-wheel which was almost completed. &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it made from the wood of
+      a red yew tree?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, the doctor gave me a whole tree that had been cut down in the park.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that gave you wood for a long time?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed; I have been making toys from it for months.&rdquo; Varna had
+      become quite eager and interested as he handed his visitor a number of
+      pretty trifles. The two had risen from their chairs and were leaning over
+      the wide window seat which served as a store-house for the wares turned
+      out by the busy workman. They were toys, mostly, all sorts of little pots
+      and plates, dolls&rsquo; furniture, balls of various sizes, miniature bowling
+      pins, and tops. Muller took up one of the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How very clever you are, and how industrious,&rdquo; he exclaimed, sitting down
+      again and turning the top in his hands. It was covered with grey varnish
+      with tiny little yellow stripes painted on it. Towards the lower point a
+      little bit of the varnish had been broken off and the reddish wood
+      underneath was visible. The top was much better constructed than the cheap
+      toys sold in the village. It was hollow and contained in its interior a
+      mechanism started by a pressure on the upper end. Once set in motion the
+      little top spun about the room for some time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, isn&rsquo;t that pretty! Is this mechanism your own invention?&rdquo; asked
+      Muller smiling. Gyuri watched the top with drawn brows and murmured
+      something about &ldquo;childish foolishness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is my own invention,&rdquo; said the patient, flattered. He started out
+      on an absolutely technical explanation of the mechanism of tops in general
+      and of his own in particular, an explanation so lucid and so well put that
+      no one would have believed the man who was speaking was not in possession
+      of the full powers of his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller listened very attentively with unfeigned interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you have made more important inventions than this, haven&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; he
+      asked when the other stopped talking. Varna&rsquo;s eyes flashed and his voice
+      dropped to a tone of mystery as he answered: &ldquo;Yes indeed I have. But I did
+      not have time to finish them. For I had become some one else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some one else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cardillac,&rdquo; whispered Varna, whose mania was now getting the best of him
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cardillac? You mean the notorious goldsmith who lived in Paris 200 years
+      ago? Why, he&rsquo;s dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Varna&rsquo;s pale lips curled in a superior smile. &ldquo;Oh, yes&mdash;that&rsquo;s what
+      people think, but it&rsquo;s a mistake. He is still alive&mdash;I am&mdash;I
+      have&mdash;although of course there isn&rsquo;t much opportunity here&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gyuri cleared his throat with a rasping noise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What were you saying, friend Cardillac?&rdquo; asked Muller with a great show
+      of interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have done things here that nobody has found out. It gives me great
+      pleasure to see the authorities so helpless over the riddles I have given
+      them to solve. Oh, indeed, sir, you would never imagine how stupid they
+      are here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In other words, friend Cardillac, you are too clever for the authorities
+      here?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s it,&rdquo; said the insane man greatly flattered. He raised his
+      head proudly and smiled down at his guest. At this moment the doctor came
+      into the room and Gyuri walked forward to the group at the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are making him nervous, sir,&rdquo; he said to Muller in a tone that was
+      almost harsh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can leave that to me,&rdquo; answered the detective calmly. &ldquo;And you will
+      please place yourself behind Mr. Varna&rsquo;s chair, not behind mine. It is
+      your eyes that are making him uneasy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The attendant was alarmed and lost control of himself for a moment. &ldquo;Sir!&rdquo;
+       he exclaimed in an outburst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Muller, in case you do not know it already, Joseph Muller,
+      detective. Gyuri Kovacz, you will do what I tell you to! I am master here
+      just now. Is it not so, doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is so,&rdquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does this mean?&rdquo; murmured Gyuri, turning pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It means that the best thing for you to do is to stand up against that
+      wall and fold your arms on your breast,&rdquo; said Muller firmly. He took a
+      revolver from his pocket and laid it beside him on the turning-lathe. The
+      young giant, cowed by the sight of the weapon, obeyed the commands of this
+      little man whom he could have easily crushed with a single blow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Orszay sank down on the chair beside the door. Muller, now completely
+      master of the situation, turned to the insane man who stood looking at him
+      in a surprise which was mingled with admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, my dear Cardillac, you must tell us of your great deeds here,&rdquo;
+       said the detective in a friendly tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate man bent over him with shining eyes and whispered: &ldquo;But
+      you&rsquo;ll shoot him first, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I shoot him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he won&rsquo;t let me say a word without beating me. He is so cruel. He
+      sticks pins into me if I don&rsquo;t do what he wants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you tell the doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gyuri would have treated me worse than ever then. I am a coward, sir, I&rsquo;m
+      so afraid of pain and he knew that&mdash;he knew that I was afraid of
+      being hurt and that I&rsquo;d always do what he asked of me. And because I don&rsquo;t
+      like to be hurt myself I always finished them off quickly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Finished who?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, there was Red Betty, he wanted her money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who wanted it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gyuri.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man at the wall moved when he heard this terrible accusation. But the
+      detective took up his revolver again. &ldquo;Be quiet there!&rdquo; he called, with a
+      look such as he might have thrown at an angry dog. Gyuri stood quiet again
+      but his eyes shot flames and great drops stood out on his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now go on, friend Cardillac,&rdquo; continued the detective. &ldquo;We were talking
+      about Red Betty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I strangled her. She did not even know she was dying. She was such a weak
+      old woman, it really couldn&rsquo;t have hurt her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, certainly not,&rdquo; said Muller soothingly, for he saw that the thought
+      that his victim might have suffered was beginning to make the madman
+      uneasy. &ldquo;You needn&rsquo;t worry about that. Old Betty died a quiet death. But
+      tell me, how did Gyuri know that she had money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The whole village knew it. She laid cards for people and earned a lot of
+      money that way. She was very stingy and saved every bit. Somebody saw her
+      counting out her money once, she had it in a big stocking under her bed.
+      People in the village talked about it. That&rsquo;s how Gyuri heard of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so he commanded you to kill Betty and steal her money?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. He knew that I loved to give them riddles to guess, just as I did in
+      Paris so long ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, you&rsquo;re Cardillac, aren&rsquo;t you? And now tell us about the smith&rsquo;s
+      swineherd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean Janos? Oh, he was a stupid lout,&rdquo; answered Varna scornfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He had cast an eye on the beautiful Julcsi, Gyuri&rsquo;s mistress, so of
+      course I had to kill him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you do that alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Gyuri helped me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you cut the bridge supports?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I enjoy giving people riddles, as I told you. But Gyuri forbade
+      me to kill people uselessly. I liked the chance of getting out though. The
+      doctor&rsquo;s so good to me and the others too. Gyuri is good to me when I have
+      done what he wanted. But you see, Mr. Muller, I am like a prisoner here
+      and that makes me angry. I made Gyuri let me out nights sometimes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean he let you out alone, all alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, of course, for I threatened to tell the doctor everything if he
+      didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wouldn&rsquo;t have dared do that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that&rsquo;s true,&rdquo; smiled Varna slyly. &ldquo;But Gyuri was afraid I might do
+      it, for he isn&rsquo;t always strong enough to frighten me with his eyes. Those
+      were the hours when I could make him afraid&mdash;I liked those hours&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you do when you were out alone at night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I just walked about. I set fire to a tree in the woods once, then the
+      rain came and put it out. Once I killed a dog and another time I cut
+      through the bridge supports. That took me several hours to do and made me
+      very tired. But it was such fun to know that people would be worrying and
+      fussing about who did it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Varna rubbed his hands gleefully. He did not look the least bit malicious
+      but only very much amused. The doctor groaned. Gyuri&rsquo;s great body
+      trembled, his arms shook, but he did not make a single voluntary movement.
+      He saw the revolver in Muller&rsquo;s hand and felt the keen grey eyes resting
+      on him in pitiless calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now tell us about the pastor?&rdquo; said the detective in a firm clear
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he was a dear, good gentleman,&rdquo; said No. 302 with an expression of
+      pitying sorrow on his face. &ldquo;I owed him much gratitude; that&rsquo;s why I put
+      the roses in his hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but you murdered him first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, Gyuri told me to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He hated the pastor, for the old gentleman had no confidence in him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this true?&rdquo; Muller turned to the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not notice it,&rdquo; said Orszay with a voice that showed deep sorrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you?&rdquo; Muller&rsquo;s eyes bored themselves into the orbs of the young
+      giant, now dulled with fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gyuri started and shivered. &ldquo;He looked at me sharply every now and then,&rdquo;
+       he murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that was why he was killed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The warder&rsquo;s head sank on his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not only for that reason,&rdquo; continued No. 302. &ldquo;Gyuri needed money
+      again. He ordered me to bring him the silver candlesticks off the altar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Murder and sacrilege,&rdquo; said the detective calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I did not rob the church. When I had buried the reverend gentleman I
+      heard the cock crowing. I was afraid I might get home here too late and I
+      forgot the candlesticks. I had to stop to wash my hands in the brook.
+      While I was there I saw shepherd Janci coming along and I hid behind the
+      willows. He almost discovered me once, but Janci&rsquo;s a dreamer, he sees
+      things nobody else sees&mdash;and he doesn&rsquo;t see things that everybody
+      else does see. I couldn&rsquo;t help laughing at his sleepy face. But I didn&rsquo;t
+      laugh when I came back to the asylum. Gyuri was waiting for me at the
+      door. When he saw that I hadn&rsquo;t brought the candlesticks he beat me and
+      tortured me worse than he&rsquo;d ever done before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you didn&rsquo;t tell anyone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, no; because I was afraid that if I told on him, I&rsquo;d never be able to
+      go out again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, quite alone, could carry the pastor&rsquo;s body out of his room?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very strong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did you arrange it that there should be no traces of blood to betray
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I waited until the body had stiffened, then I tied up the wound and
+      carried him down into the crypt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you do that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to leave him in that horrid pool of blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were sorry for him then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes; it looked so horrid to see him lying there&mdash;and he had
+      always been so good to me. He was so good to me that very evening when I
+      entered his study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He recognised you?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly. He sprang up from his chair when I came in through the passage
+      from the church. I saw that he was startled, but he smiled at me and
+      reached out his hand to me and said: &lsquo;What brings you here, my dear
+      Cardillac?&rsquo; And then I struck. I wanted him to die with that smile on his
+      lips. It is beautiful to see a man die smiling, it shows that he has not
+      been afraid of death. He was dead at once. I always kill that way&mdash;I
+      know just how to strike and where. I killed more than a hundred people
+      years ago in Paris, and I didn&rsquo;t leave one of them the time for even a
+      sigh. I was renowned for that&mdash;I had a kind heart and a sure hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller interrupted the dreadful imaginings of the madman with a question.
+      &ldquo;You got into the house through the crypt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, through the crypt. I found the window one night when I was prowling
+      around in the churchyard. When I knew that the pastor was to be the next,
+      I cut through the window bars. Gyuri went into the church one day when
+      nobody was there and found out that it was easy to lift the stone over the
+      entrance to the crypt. He also learned that the doors from the church to
+      the vestry were never locked. I knew how to find the passageway, because I
+      had been through it several times on my visits to the rectory. But it was
+      a mere chance that the door into the pastor&rsquo;s study was unlocked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A chance that cost the life of a worthy man,&rdquo; said the detective gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varna nodded sadly. &ldquo;But he didn&rsquo;t suffer, he was dead at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now tell me what this top was doing there?&rdquo; No. 302 looked at the
+      detective in great surprise, and then laid his hand on the latter&rsquo;s arm.
+      &ldquo;How did you know that I had the top there?&rdquo; he asked with a show of
+      interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I found its traces in the room, and it was those traces that led me here
+      to you,&rdquo; answered Muller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How strange!&rdquo; remarked Varna. &ldquo;Are you like shepherd Janci that you can
+      see the things others don&rsquo;t see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have not Janci&rsquo;s gift. It would be a great comfort to me and a help
+      to the others perhaps if I had. I can only see things after they have
+      happened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you can see more than others&mdash;the others did not see the traces
+      of the top?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My business is to see more than others see,&rdquo; said Muller. &ldquo;But you have
+      not told me yet what the top was doing there. Why did you take a toy like
+      that with you when you went out on such an errand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was in my pocket by chance. When I reached for my handkerchief to
+      quench the flow of blood the top came out with it. I must have touched the
+      spring without knowing it, for the top began to spin. I stood still and
+      watched it, then I ran after it. It spun around the room and finally came
+      back to the body. So did I. The pastor was quite still and dead by that
+      time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have heard everything, Dr. Orszay?&rdquo; asked the detective, rising from
+      his chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have heard everything,&rdquo; answered the venerable head of the asylum.
+      He was utterly crushed by the realisation that all this tragedy and horror
+      had gone out from his house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varna rose also. He understood perfectly that now Gyuri&rsquo;s power was at an
+      end and he was as pleased as a child that has just received a present.
+      &ldquo;And now you&rsquo;re going to shoot him?&rdquo; he asked, in the tone a boy would use
+      if asking when the fireworks were to begin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller shook his head. &ldquo;No, my dear Cardillac,&rdquo; he replied gravely. &ldquo;He
+      will not be shot&mdash;that is a death for a brave soldier&mdash;but this
+      man has deserved&mdash;&rdquo; He did not finish the sentence, for the warder
+      sank to the floor unconscious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a coward!&rdquo; murmured the detective scornfully, looking down at the
+      giant frame that lay prostrate before him. Even in his wide experience he
+      had known of no case of a man of such strength and such bestial cruelty,
+      combined with such utter cowardice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varna also stood looking down at the unconscious warder. Then he glanced
+      up with a cunning smile at the other two men who stood there. The doctor,
+      pale and trembling with horror, covered his face with his hands. Muller
+      turned to the door to call in the attendants waiting outside. During the
+      moment&rsquo;s pause that ensued the madman bent over his worktable, seized a
+      knife that lay there and dropped on one knee beside the prostrate form.
+      His hand was raised to strike when a calm voice said: &ldquo;Fie! Cardillac, for
+      shame! Do not belittle yourself. This man here is not worthy of your
+      knife, the hangman will look after him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Varna raised his loose-jointed frame and looked about with glistening eyes
+      and trembling lips. His mind was completely darkened once more. &ldquo;I must
+      kill him&mdash;I must have his blood&mdash;there is no one to see me,&rdquo; he
+      murmured. &ldquo;I am a hangman too&mdash;he has made a hangman of me,&rdquo; and
+      again he bent with uplifted hand over the man who had utilised his
+      terrible misfortune to make a criminal of him. But two of the waiting
+      attendants seized his arms and threw him back on the floor, while the
+      other two carted Gyuri out. Both unfortunates were soon securely guarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not be angry with me, doctor,&rdquo; said Muller gravely, as he walked
+      through the garden accompanied by Orszay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Orszay laughed bitterly. &ldquo;Why should I be angry with you&mdash;you
+      who have discovered my inexcusable credulity?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inexcusable? Oh, no, doctor; it was quite natural that you should have
+      believed a man who had himself so well in hand, and who knew so well how
+      to play his part. When we come to think of it, we realise that most crimes
+      have been made possible through some one&rsquo;s credulity, or over-confidence,
+      a credulity which, in the light of subsequent events, seems quite
+      incomprehensible. Do not reproach yourself and do not lose heart. Your
+      only fault was that you did not recognise the heart of the beast of prey
+      in this admirable human form.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What course will the law take?&rdquo; asked Orszay. &ldquo;The poor unfortunate
+      madman&mdash;whose knife took all these lives&mdash;cannot be held
+      responsible, can he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no; his misfortune protects him. But as for the other, though his
+      hands bear no actual bloodstains, he is more truly a murderer than the
+      unhappy man who was his tool. Hanging is too good for him. There are times
+      when even I could wish that we were back in the Middle Ages, when it was
+      possible to torture a prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not look like that sort of a man,&rdquo; smiled the doctor through his
+      sadness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I am the most good-natured of men usually, I think&mdash;the meekest
+      anyway,&rdquo; answered Muller. &ldquo;But a case like this&mdash;. However, as I said
+      before, keep a stout heart, doctor, and do not waste time in unnecessary
+      self-reproachings.&rdquo; The detective pressed the doctor&rsquo;s hand warmly and
+      walked down the hill towards the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went at once to the office of the magistrate and made his report, then
+      returned to the rectory and packed his grip. He arranged for its transport
+      to the railway station, as he himself preferred to walk the inconsiderable
+      distance. He passed through the village and had just entered the open
+      fields when he met Janci with his flock. The shepherd hastened his steps
+      when he saw the detective approaching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have found him, sir?&rdquo; he exclaimed as he came up to Muller. The men
+      had come to be friends by this time. The silent shepherd with the power of
+      second sight had won Muller&rsquo;s interest at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I found him. It is Gyuri, the warder at the asylum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, it is not Gyuri&mdash;Gyuri did not do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But when I tell you that he did?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I tell you, sir, that Gyuri did not do it. The man who did it&mdash;he
+      has yellowish hands&mdash;I saw them&mdash;I saw big yellowish hands.
+      Gyuri&rsquo;s hands are big, but they are brown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Janci, you are right. I was only trying to test you. Gyuri did not do it;
+      that is, he did not do it with his own hands. The man who held the knife
+      that struck down the pastor was Varna, the crazy mechanician.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Janci beat his forehead. &ldquo;Oh, I am a foolish and useless dreamer!&rdquo; he
+      exclaimed; &ldquo;of course it was Varna&rsquo;s hands that I saw. I have seen them a
+      hundred times when he came down into the village, and yet when I saw them
+      in the vision I did not recognise them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all dreamers, Janci&mdash;and our dreams are very useless
+      generally.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yours are not useless, sir,&rdquo; said the shepherd. &ldquo;If I had as much brains
+      as you have, my dreams might be of some good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muller smiled. &ldquo;And if I had your visions, Janci, it would be a powerful
+      aid to me in my profession.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you need them, sir. You can find out the hidden things
+      without them. You are going to leave us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Janci, I must go back to Budapest, and from there to Vienna. They
+      need me on another case.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sad work, this bringing people to the gallows, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Janci, it is sometimes. But it&rsquo;s a good thing to be able to avenge
+      crime and bring justice to the injured. Good-bye, Janci.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-bye, sir, and God speed you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The shepherd stood looking after the small, slight figure of the man who
+      walked on rapidly through the heather. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the right one for the work,&rdquo;
+       murmured Janci as he turned slowly back towards the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour later Muller stood in the little waiting-room of the railway
+      station writing a telegram. It was addressed to Count &mdash;&mdash;.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;Do you know the shepherd Janci?  It would be a good thing to
+  make him the official detective for the village.  He has high
+  qualifications for the profession.  If I had his gifts combined
+  with my own, not one could escape me.  I have found this one
+  however.  The guards are already taking him to you.  My work
+  here is done.  If I should be needed again I can be found at
+  Police Headquarters, Vienna.
+                                                  &ldquo;Respectfully,
+                                                  &ldquo;JOSEPH MULLER.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      While the detective was writing his message&mdash;it was one of the rare
+      moments of humour that Muller allowed himself, and he wondered mildly what
+      the stately Hungarian nobleman would think of it&mdash;a heavy farm wagon
+      jolted over the country roads towards the little county seat. Sitting
+      beside the driver and riding about the wagon were armed peasants. The
+      figure of a man, securely bound, his face distorted by rage and fear, lay
+      in the wagon. It was Gyuri Kovacz, who had murdered by the hands of
+      another, and who was now on his way to meet the death that was his due.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And at one of the barred windows in the big yellow house stood a
+      sallow-faced man, looking out at the rising moon with sad, tired eyes. His
+      lips were parted in a smile like that of a dreaming child, and he hummed a
+      gentle lullaby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his compartment of the express from Budapest to Vienna, Joseph Muller
+      sat thinking over the strange events that had called him to the obscure
+      little Hungarian village. He had met with many strange cases in his long
+      career, but this particular case had some features which were unique.
+      Muller&rsquo;s lips set hard and his hands tightened to fists as he murmured:
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve met with criminals who used strange tools, but never before have I
+      met with one who had the cunning and the incredible cruelty to utilise the
+      mania of an unhinged human mind. It is a thousand times worse than those
+      criminals who, now and then throughout the ages, have trained brute beasts
+      to murder for them. Truly, this Hungarian peasant, Gyuri Kovacz, deserves
+      a high place in the infamous roll-call of the great criminals of history.
+      A student of crime might almost be led to think that it is a pity his
+      career has been cut short so soon. He might have gone far.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But for humanity&rsquo;s sake&rdquo; (Muller&rsquo;s eyes gleamed), &ldquo;I am thankful that I
+      was able to discover this beast in human form and render him innocuous; he
+      had done quite enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+Pastor&rsquo;s Study, by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
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+</html>
diff --git a/1835.txt b/1835.txt
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/1835.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2439 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Case of The Pool of Blood in the
+Pastor's Study, by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Case of The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study
+
+Author: Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+Posting Date: October 29, 2008 [EBook #1835]
+Release Date: July, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOL OF BLOOD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR'S STUDY
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+JOE MULLER: DETECTIVE
+
+
+
+
+THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR'S STUDY
+
+
+The sun rose slowly over the great bulk of the Carpathian mountains
+lying along the horizon, weird giant shapes in the early morning mist.
+It was still very quiet in the village. A cock crowed here and there,
+and swallows flew chirping close to the ground, darting swiftly about
+preparing for their higher flight. Janci the shepherd, apparently the
+only human being already up, stood beside the brook at the point where
+the old bridge spans the streamlet, still turbulent from the mountain
+floods. Janci was cutting willows to make his Margit a new basket.
+
+Once the shepherd raised his head from his work, for he thought he heard
+a loud laugh somewhere in the near distance. But all seemed silent and
+he turned back to his willows. The beauty of the landscape about him was
+much too familiar a thing that he should have felt or seen its
+charm. The violet hue of the distant woods, the red gleaming of the
+heather-strewn moor, with its patches of swamp from which the slow
+mist arose, the pretty little village with its handsome old church and
+attractive rectory--Janci had known it so long that he never stopped to
+realise how very charming, in its gentle melancholy, it all was.
+
+Also, Janci did not know that this little village of his home had once
+been a flourishing city, and that an invasion of the Turks had razed
+it to the ground leaving, as by a miracle, only the church to tell of
+former glories.
+
+The sun rose higher and higher. And now the village awoke to its daily
+life. Voices of cattle and noises of poultry were heard about the
+houses, and men and women began their accustomed round of tasks. Janci
+found that he had gathered enough willow twigs by this time. He tied
+them in a loose bundle and started on his homeward way.
+
+His path led through wide-stretching fields and vineyards past a little
+hill, some distance from the village, on which stood a large house. It
+was not a pleasant house to look at, not a house one would care to live
+in, even if one did not know its use, for it looked bare and repellant,
+covered with its ugly yellow paint, and with all the windows secured
+with heavy iron bars. The trees that surrounded it were tall and
+thick-foliaged, casting an added gloom over the forbidding appearance
+of the house. At the foot of the hill was a high iron fence, cutting off
+what lay behind it from all the rest of the world. For this ugly yellow
+house enclosed in its walls a goodly sum of hopeless human misery and
+misfortune. It was an insane asylum.
+
+For twenty years now, the asylum had stood on its hill, a source of
+superstitious terror to the villagers, but at the same time a source of
+added income. It meant money for them, for it afforded a constant and
+ever-open market for their farm products and the output of their home
+industry. But every now and then a scream or a harsh laugh would ring
+out from behind those barred windows, and those in the village who could
+hear, would shiver and cross themselves. Shepherd Janci had little fear
+of the big house. His little hut cowered close by the high iron gates,
+and he had a personal acquaintance with most of the patients, with all
+of the attendants, and most of all, with the kind elderly physician who
+was the head of the establishment. Janci knew them all, and had a kind
+word equally for all. But otherwise he was a silent man, living much
+within himself.
+
+When the shepherd reached his little home, his wife came to meet him
+with a call to breakfast. As they sat down at the table a shadow moved
+past the little window. Janci looked up. "Who was that?" asked Margit,
+looking up from her folded hands. She had just finished her murmured
+prayer.
+
+"Pastor's Liska," replied Janci indifferently, beginning his meal.
+(Liska was the local abbreviation for Elizabeth.)
+
+"In such a hurry?" thought the shepherd's wife. Her curiosity would not
+let her rest. "I hope His Reverence isn't ill again," she remarked after
+a while. Janci did not hear her, for he was very busy picking a fly out
+of his milk cup.
+
+"Do you think Liska was going for the old man?" began Margit again after
+a few minutes.
+
+The "old man" was the name given by the people of the village, more as
+a term of endearment than anything else, to the generally loved and
+respected physician who was the head of the insane asylum. He had become
+general mentor and oracle of all the village and was known and loved by
+man, woman and child.
+
+"It's possible," answered Janci.
+
+"His Reverence didn't look very well yesterday, or maybe the old
+housekeeper has the gout again."
+
+Janci gave a grunt which might have meant anything. The shepherd was a
+silent man. Being alone so much had taught him to find his own thoughts
+sufficient company. Ten minutes passed in silence since Margit's last
+question, then some one went past the window. There were two people this
+time, Liska and the old doctor. They were walking very fast, running
+almost. Margit sprang up and hurried to the door to look after them.
+
+Janci sat still in his place, but he had laid aside his spoon and with
+wide eyes was staring ahead of him, murmuring, "It's the pastor this
+time; I saw him--just as I did the others."
+
+"Shepherd, the inn-keeper wants to see you, there's something the matter
+with his cow." Count ---- a young man, came from the other direction
+and pushed in at the door past Margit, who stood there staring up the
+road.
+
+Janci was so deep in his own thoughts that he apparently did not hear
+the boy's words. At all events he did not answer them, but himself asked
+an unexpected question--a question that was not addressed to the others
+in the room, but to something out and beyond them. It was a strange
+question and it came from the lips of a man whose mind was not with his
+body at that moment--whose mind saw what others did not see.
+
+"Who will be the next to go? And who will be our pastor now?"
+
+These were Janci's words.
+
+"What are you talking about, shepherd? Is it another one of your
+visions?" exclaimed the young fellow who stood there before him. Janci
+rubbed his hands over his eyes and seemed to come down to earth with a
+start.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Ferenz? What do you want of me?"
+
+The boy gave his message again, and Janci nodded good-humouredly and
+followed him out of the house. But both he and his young companion were
+very thoughtful as they plodded along the way. The boy did not dare
+to ask any questions, for he knew that the shepherd was not likely to
+answer. There was a silent understanding among the villagers that no one
+should annoy Janci in any way, for they stood in a strange awe of him,
+although he was the most good-natured mortal under the sun.
+
+While the shepherd and the boy walked toward the inn, the old doctor and
+Liska had hurried onward to the rectory. They were met at the door by
+the aged housekeeper, who staggered down the path wringing her hands,
+unable to give voice to anything but inarticulate expressions of grief
+and terror. The rest of the household and the farm hands were gathered
+in a frightened group in the great courtyard of the stately rectory
+which had once been a convent building. The physician hurried up the
+stairs into the pastor's apartments. These were high sunny and airy
+rooms with arched ceilings, deep window seats, great heavy doors and
+handsomely ornamented stoves. The simple modern furniture appeared still
+more plain and common-place by contrast with the huge spaces of the
+building.
+
+In one of the rooms a gendarme was standing beside the window. The man
+saluted the physician, then shrugged his shoulders with an expression of
+hopelessness. The doctor returned a silent greeting and passed through
+into the next apartment. The old man was paler than usual and his face
+bore an expression of pain and surprise, the same expression that showed
+in the faces of those gathered downstairs. The room he now entered was
+large like the others, the walls handsomely decorated, and every corner
+of it was flooded with sunshine. There were two men in this room, the
+village magistrate and the notary. Their expression, as they held out
+their hands to the doctor, showed that his coming brought great relief.
+And there was something else in the room, something that drew the eyes
+of all three of the men immediately after their silent greeting.
+
+This was a great pool of blood which lay as a hideous stain on the
+otherwise clean yellow-painted floor. The blood must have flowed from
+a dreadful wound, from a severed artery even, the doctor thought, there
+was such a quantity of it. It had already dried and darkened, making its
+terrifying ugliness the more apparent.
+
+"This is the third murder in two years," said the magistrate in a low
+voice.
+
+"And the most mysterious of all of them," added the clerk.
+
+"Yes, it is," said the doctor. "And there is not a trace of the body,
+you say?--or a clue as to where they might have taken the dead--or dying
+man?"
+
+With these words he looked carefully around the room, but there was no
+more blood to be seen anywhere. Any spot would have been clearly visible
+on the light-coloured floor. There was nothing else to tell of the
+horrible crime that had been committed here, nothing but the great,
+hideous, brown-red spot in the middle of the room.
+
+"Have you made a thorough search for the body?" asked the doctor.
+
+The magistrate shook his head. "No, I have done nothing to speak of yet.
+We have been waiting for you. There is a gendarme at the gate; no one
+can go in or out without being seen."
+
+"Very well, then, let us begin our search now."
+
+The magistrate and his companion turned towards the door of the room but
+the doctor motioned them to come back. "I see you do not know the house
+as well as I do," he said, and led the way towards a niche in the side
+of the wall, which was partially filled by a high bookcase.
+
+"Ah--that is the entrance of the passage to the church?" asked the
+magistrate in surprise.
+
+"Yes, this is it. The door is not locked."
+
+"You mean you believe--"
+
+"That the murderers came in from the church? Why not? It is quite
+possible."
+
+"To think of such a thing!" exclaimed the notary with a shake of his
+head.
+
+The doctor laughed bitterly. "To those who are planning a murder, a
+church is no more than any other place. There is a bolt here as you see.
+I will close this bolt now. Then we can leave the room knowing that no
+one can enter it without being seen."
+
+The simple furniture of the study, a desk, a sofa, a couple of chairs
+and several bookcases, gave no chance of any hiding place either for the
+body of the victim or for the murderers. When the men left the room
+the magistrate locked the door and put the key in his own pocket. The
+gendarme in the neighbouring apartment was sent down to stand in the
+courtyard at the entrance to the house. The sexton, a little hunchback,
+was ordered to remain in the vestry at the other end of the passage from
+the church to the house.
+
+Then the thorough search of the house began. Every room in both stories,
+every corner of the attic and the cellar, was looked over thoroughly.
+The stable, the barns, the garden and even the well underwent a close
+examination. There was no trace of a body anywhere, not even a trail
+of blood, nothing which would give the slightest clue as to how the
+murderers had entered, how they had fled, or what they had done with
+their victim.
+
+The great gate of the courtyard was closed. The men, reinforced by the
+farm hands, entered the church, while Liska and the dairy-maids huddled
+in the servants' dining-room in a trembling group around the old
+housekeeper. The search in the church as well as in the vestry was
+equally in vain. There was no trace to be found there any more than in
+the house.
+
+Meanwhile, during these hours of anxious seeking, the rumour of another
+terrible crime had spread through the village, and a crowd that grew
+from minute to minute gathered in front of the closed gates to the
+rectory, in front of the church, the closed doors of which did not open
+although it was a high feast day. The utter silence from the steeple,
+where the bells hung mute, added to the spreading terror. Finally the
+doctor came out from the rectory, accompanied by the magistrate, and
+announced to the waiting villagers that their venerable pastor had
+disappeared under circumstances which left no doubt that he had met his
+death at the hand of a murderer. The peasants listened in shuddering
+silence, the men pale-faced, the women sobbing aloud with frightened
+children hanging to their skirts. Then at the magistrate's order, the
+crowd dispersed slowly, going to their homes, while a messenger set off
+to the near-by county seat.
+
+It was a weird, sad Easter Monday. Even nature seemed to feel the
+pressure of the brooding horror, for heavy clouds piled up towards noon
+and a chill wind blew fitfully from the north, bending the young corn
+and the creaking tree-tops, and moaning about the straw-covered roofs.
+Then an icy cold rain descended on the village, sending the children,
+the only humans still unconscious of the fear that had come on them all,
+into the houses to play quietly in the corner by the hearth.
+
+There was nothing else spoken of wherever two or three met together
+throughout the village except this dreadful, unexplainable thing
+that had happened in the rectory. The little village inn was full
+to overflowing and the hum of voices within was like the noise of an
+excited beehive. Everyone had some new explanation, some new guess, and
+it was not until the notary arrived, looking even more important than
+usual, that silence fell upon the excited throng. But the expectations
+aroused by his coming were not fulfilled. The notary knew no more than
+the others although he had been one of the searchers in the rectory.
+But he was in no haste to disclose his ignorance, and sat wrapped in a
+dignified silence until some one found courage to question him.
+
+"Was there nothing stolen?" he was asked.
+
+"No, nothing as far as we can tell yet. But if it was the gypsies--as
+may be likely--they are content with so little that it would not be
+noticed."
+
+"Gypsies?" exclaimed one man scornfully. "It doesn't have to be gypsies,
+we've got enough tramps and vagabonds of our own. Didn't they kill the
+pedlar for the sake of a bag of tobacco, and old Katiza for a couple of
+hens?"
+
+"Why do you rake up things that happened twenty years ago?" cried
+another over the table. "You'd better tell us rather who killed Red
+Betty, and pulled Janos, the smith's farm hand, down into the swamp?"
+
+"Yes, or who cut the bridge supports, when the brook was in flood, so
+that two good cows broke through and drowned?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, if we only knew what band of robbers and villains it is
+that is ravaging our village."
+
+"And they haven't stopped yet, evidently."
+
+"This is the worst misfortune of all! What will our poor do now that
+they have murdered our good pastor, who cared for us all like a father?"
+
+"He gave all he had to the poor, he kept nothing for himself."
+
+"Yes, indeed, that's how it was. And now we can't even give this good
+man Christian burial."
+
+"Shepherd Janci knew this morning early that we were going to have a new
+pastor," whispered the landlord in the notary's ear. The latter looked
+up astonished. "Who said so?" he asked.
+
+"My boy Ferenz, who went to fetch him about seven o'clock. One of my
+cows was sick."
+
+Ferenz was sent for and told his story. The men listened with
+great interest, and the smith, a broad-shouldered elderly man, was
+particularly eager to hear, as he had always believed in the shepherd's
+power of second sight. The tailor, who was more modern-minded, laughed
+and made his jokes at this. But the smith laid one mighty hand on the
+other's shoulder, almost crushing the tailor's slight form under its
+weight, and said gravely: "Friend, do you be silent in this matter.
+You've come from other parts and you do not know of things that have
+happened here in days gone by. Janci can do more than take care of his
+sheep. One day, when my little girl was playing in the street, he said
+to me, 'Have a care of Maruschka, smith!' and three days later the child
+was dead. The evening before Red Betty was murdered he saw her in a
+vision lying in a coffin in front of her door. He told it to the sexton,
+whom he met in the fields; and next morning they found Betty dead. And
+there are many more things that I could tell you, but what's the use;
+when a man won't believe it's only lost talk to try to make him. But
+one thing you should know: when Janci stares ahead of him without seeing
+what's in front of him, then the whole village begins to wonder what's
+going to happen, for Janci knows far more than all the rest of us put
+together."
+
+The smith's grave, deep voice filled the room and the others listened
+in a silence that gave assent to his words. He had scarcely finished
+speaking, however, when there was a noise of galloping hoofs and rapidly
+rolling wagon wheels. A tall brake drawn by four handsome horses dashed
+past in a whirlwind.
+
+"It's the Count--the Count and the district judge," said the landlord
+in a tone of respect. The notary made a grab at his hat and umbrella and
+hurried from the room. "That shows how much they thought of our pastor,"
+continued the landlord proudly. "For the Count himself has come and
+with four horses, too, to get here the more quickly. His Reverence was a
+great friend of the Countess."
+
+"They didn't make so much fuss over the pedlar and Betty," murmured
+the cobbler, who suffered from a perpetual grouch. But he followed the
+others, who paid their scores hastily and went out into the streets
+that they might watch from a distance at least what was going on in
+the rectory. The landlord bustled about the inn to have everything in
+readiness in case the gentlemen should honour him by taking a meal,
+and perhaps even lodgings, at his house. At the gate of the rectory the
+coachman and the maid Liska stood to receive the newcomers, just as five
+o'clock was striking from the steeple.
+
+It should have been still quite light, but it was already dusk, for the
+clouds hung heavy. The rain had ceased, but a heavy wind came up which
+tore the delicate petals of the blossoms from the fruit trees and
+strewed them like snow on the ground beneath. The Count, who was the
+head of one of the richest and most aristocratic families in Hungary,
+threw off his heavy fur coat and hastened up the stairs at the top of
+which his old friend and confidant, the venerable pastor, usually came
+to meet him. To-day it was only the local magistrate who stood there,
+bowing deeply.
+
+"This is incredible, incredible!" exclaimed the Count.
+
+"It is, indeed, sir," said the man, leading the magnate through the
+dining-room into the pastor's study, where, as far as could be seen, the
+murder had been committed. They were joined by the district judge, who
+had remained behind to give an order sending a carriage to the nearest
+railway station. The judge, too, was serious and deeply shocked, for he
+also had greatly admired and revered the old pastor. The stately rectory
+had been the scene of many a jovial gathering when the lord of the manor
+had made it a centre for a day's hunting with his friends. The bearers
+of some of the proudest names in all Hungary had gathered in the
+high-arched rooms to laugh with the venerable pastor and to sample
+the excellent wines in his cellar. These wines, which the gentlemen
+themselves would send in as presents to the master of the rectory, would
+be carefully preserved for their own enjoyment. Not a landed proprietor
+for many leagues around but knew and loved the old pastor, who had now
+so strangely disappeared under such terrifying circumstances.
+
+"Well, we might as well begin our examination," remarked the Count.
+"Although if Dr. Orszay's sharp eyes did not find anything, I doubt very
+much if we will. You have asked the doctor to come here again, haven't
+you?"
+
+"Yes, your Grace! As soon as I saw you coming I sent the sexton to the
+asylum." Then the men went in again into the room which had been the
+scene of the mysterious crime. The wind rattled the open window and blew
+out its white curtains. It was already dark in the corners of the room,
+one could see but indistinctly the carvings of the wainscoting. The
+light backs of the books, or the gold letters on the darker bindings,
+made spots of brightness in the gloom. The hideous pool of blood in the
+centre of the floor was still plainly to be seen.
+
+"Judging by the loss of blood, death must have come quickly."
+
+"There was no struggle, evidently, for everything in the room was in
+perfect order when we entered it."
+
+"There is not even a chair misplaced. His Bible is there on the desk, he
+may have been preparing for to-day's sermon."
+
+"Yes, that is the case; because see, here are some notes in his
+handwriting."
+
+The Count and Judge von Kormendy spoke these sentences at intervals as
+they made their examination of the room. The local magistrate was able
+to answer one or two simpler questions, but for the most part he could
+only shrug his shoulders in helplessness. Nothing had been seen or heard
+that was at all unusual during the night in the rectory. When the old
+housekeeper was called up she could say nothing more than this. Indeed,
+it was almost impossible for the old woman to say anything, her voice
+choked with sobs at every second word. None of the household force had
+noticed anything unusual, or could remember anything at all that would
+throw light on this mystery.
+
+"Well, then, sir, we might just as well sit down and wait for the
+detective's arrival," said the judge.
+
+"You are waiting for some one besides the doctor?" asked the local
+magistrate timidly.
+
+"Yes, His Grace telegraphed to Budapest," answered the district judge,
+looking at his watch. "And if the train is on time, the man we are
+waiting for ought to be here in an hour. You sent the carriage to the
+station, didn't you? Is the driver reliable?"
+
+"Yes, sir, he is a dependable man," said the old housekeeper.
+
+Dr. Orszay entered the room just then and the Count introduced him to
+the district judge, who was still a stranger to him.
+
+"I fear, Count, that our eyes will serve but little in discovering the
+truth of this mystery," said the doctor.
+
+The nobleman nodded. "I agree with you," he replied. "And I have sent
+for sharper eyes than either yours or mine."
+
+The doctor looked his question, and the Count continued: "When the news
+came to me I telegraphed to Pest for a police detective, telling them
+that the case was peculiar and urgent. I received an answer as I stopped
+at the station on my way here. This is it: 'Detective Joseph Muller from
+Vienna in Budapest by chance. Have sent him to take your case.'"
+
+"Muller?" exclaimed Dr. Orszay. "Can it be the celebrated Muller, the
+most famous detective of the Austrian police? That would indeed be a
+blessing."
+
+"I hope and believe that it is," said the Count gravely. "I have heard
+of this man and we need such a one here that we may find the source of
+these many misfortunes which have overwhelmed our peaceful village for
+two years past. It is indeed a stroke of good luck that has led a man
+of such gifts into our neighbourhood at a time when he is so greatly
+needed. I believe personally that it is the same person or persons who
+have been the perpetrators of all these outrages and I intend once for
+all to put a stop to it, let it cost what it may."
+
+"If any one can discover the truth it will be Muller," said the district
+judge. "It was I who told the Count how fortunate we were that this man,
+who is known to the police throughout Austria and far beyond the borders
+of our kingdom, should have chanced to be in Budapest and free to come
+to us when we called. You and I"--he turned with a smile to the local
+magistrate--"you and I can get away with the usual cases of local
+brutality hereabouts. But the cunning that is at the bottom of these
+crimes is one too many for us."
+
+The men had taken their places around the great dining-table. The old
+housekeeper had crept out again, her terror making her forget her usual
+hospitality. And indeed it would not have occurred to the guests to ask
+or even to wish for any refreshment. The maid brought a lamp, which sent
+its weak rays scarcely beyond the edges of the big table. The four men
+sat in silence for some time.
+
+"I suppose it would be useless to ask who has been coming and going from
+the rectory the last few days?" began the Count.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed, sir," said the district judge with a sigh. "For if
+this murderer is the same who committed the other crimes he must live
+here in or near the village, and therefore must be known to all and not
+likely to excite suspicion."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," put in the doctor. "There must be at least two
+of them. One man alone could not have carried off the farm hand who was
+killed to the swamp where his body was found. Nor could one man alone
+have taken away the bloody body of the pastor. Our venerable friend was
+a man of size and weight, as you know, and one man alone could not have
+dragged his body from the room without leaving an easily seen trail."
+
+The judge blushed, but he nodded in affirmation to the doctor's words.
+This thought had not occurred to him before. In fact, the judge was more
+notable for his good will and his love of justice rather than for his
+keen intelligence. He was as well aware of this as was any one else,
+and he was heartily glad that the Count had sent to the capital for
+reinforcements.
+
+Some time more passed in deep silence. Each of the men was occupied with
+his own thoughts. A sigh broke the silence now and then, and a slight
+movement when one or the other drew out his watch or raised his head to
+look at the door. Finally, the sound of a carriage outside was heard.
+The men sprang up.
+
+The driver's voice was heard, then steps which ascended the stairs lowly
+and lightly, audible only because the stillness was so great.
+
+The door opened and a small, slight, smooth-shaven man with a gentle
+face and keen grey eyes stood on the threshold. "I am Joseph Muller," he
+said with a low, soft voice.
+
+The four men in the room looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"This simple-looking individual is the man that every one is afraid of?"
+thought the Count, as he walked forward and held out his hand to the
+stranger.
+
+"I sent for you, Mr. Muller," said the magnate, conscious of his stately
+size and appearance, as well as of his importance in the presence of a
+personage who so little looked what his great fame might have led one to
+expect.
+
+"Then you are Count ----?" answered Muller gently. "I was in Budapest,
+having just finished a difficult case which took me there. They told me
+that a mysterious crime had happened in your neighbourhood, and sent me
+here to take charge of it. You will pardon any ignorance I may show as a
+stranger to this locality. I will do my best and it may be possible that
+I can help you."
+
+The Count introduced the other gentlemen in order and they sat down
+again at the table.
+
+"And now what is it you want me for, Count?" asked Muller.
+
+"There was a murder committed in this house," answered the Count.
+
+"When?"
+
+"Last night."
+
+"Who is the victim?"
+
+"Our pastor."
+
+"How was he killed?"
+
+"We do not know."
+
+"You are not a physician, then?" asked Muller, turning to Orszay.
+
+"Yes, I am," answered the latter.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The body is missing," said Orszay, somewhat sharply.
+
+"Missing?" Muller became greatly interested. "Will you please lead me to
+the scene of the crime?" he said, rising from his chair.
+
+The others led him into the next room, the magistrate going ahead with
+a lamp. The judge called for more lights and the group stood around the
+pool of blood on the floor of the study. Muller's arms were crossed on
+his breast as he stood looking down at the hideous spot. There was no
+terror in his eyes, as in those of the others, but only a keen attention
+and a lively interest.
+
+"Who has been in this room since the discovery?" he asked.
+
+The doctor replied that only the servants of the immediate household,
+the notary, the magistrate, and himself, then later the Count and the
+district judge entered the room.
+
+"You are quite certain that no one else has been in here?"
+
+"No, no one else."
+
+"Will you kindly send for the three servants?" The magistrate left the
+room.
+
+"Who else lives in the house?"
+
+"The sexton and the dairymaid."
+
+"And no one else has left the house to-day or has entered it?"
+
+"No one. The main door has been watched all day by a gendarme."
+
+"Is there but one door out of this room?"
+
+"No, there is a small door beside that bookcase."
+
+"Where does it lead to?"
+
+"It leads to a passageway at the end of which there is a stair down into
+the vestry."
+
+Muller gave an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"The vestry as well as the church have neither of them been opened on
+the side toward the street."
+
+"The church or the vestry, you mean," corrected Muller. "How many doors
+have they on the street side?"
+
+"One each."
+
+"The locks on these doors were in good condition?"
+
+"Yes, they were untouched."
+
+"Was there anything stolen from the church?"
+
+"No, nothing that we could see."
+
+"Was the pastor rich?"
+
+"No, he was almost a poor man, for he gave away all that he had."
+
+"But you were his patron, Count."
+
+"I was his friend. He was the confidential adviser of myself and
+family."
+
+"This would mean rich presents now and then, would it not?"
+
+"No, that is not the case. Our venerable pastor would take nothing for
+himself. He would accept no presents but gifts of money for his poor."
+
+"Then you do not believe this to have been a murder for the sake of
+robbery?"
+
+"No. There was nothing disturbed in any part of the house, no drawers or
+cupboards broken open at all."
+
+Muller smiled. "I have heard it said that your romantic Hungarian
+bandits will often be satisfied with the small booty they may find in
+the pocket or on the person of their victim."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Muller. But that is only when they can find nothing
+else."
+
+"Or perhaps if it is a case of revenge.
+
+"It cannot be revenge in this case!"
+
+"The pastor was greatly loved?"
+
+"He was loved and revered."
+
+"By every one?"
+
+"By every one!" the four men answered at once.
+
+Muller was still a while. His eyes were veiled and his face thoughtful.
+Finally he raised his head. "There has been nothing moved or changed in
+this room?"
+
+"No--neither here nor anywhere else in the house or the church,"
+answered the local magistrate.
+
+"That is good. Now I would like to question the servants."
+
+Muller had already started for the door, then he turned back into
+the room and pointing toward the second door he asked: "Is that door
+locked?"
+
+"Yes," answered the Count. "I found it locked when I examined it myself
+a short time ago."
+
+"It was locked on the inside?"
+
+"Yes, locked on the inside."
+
+"Very well. Then we have nothing more to do here for the time being. Let
+us go back into the dining-room."
+
+The men returned to the dining-room, Muller last, for he stopped to lock
+the door of the study and put the key in his pocket. Then he began his
+examination of the servants.
+
+The old housekeeper, who, as usual, was the first to rise in the
+household, had also, as usual, rung the bell to waken the other
+servants. Then when Liska came downstairs she had sent her up to the
+pastor's room. His bedroom was to the right of the dining-room.
+Liska had, as usual, knocked on the door exactly at seven o'clock and
+continued knocking for some few minutes without receiving any answer.
+Slightly alarmed, the girl had gone back and told the housekeeper that
+the pastor did not answer.
+
+Then the old woman asked the coachman to go up and see if anything
+was the matter with the reverend gentleman. The man returned in a few
+moments, pale and trembling in every limb and apparently struck dumb by
+fright. He motioned the women to follow him, and all three crept up
+the stairs. The coachman led them first to the pastor's bed, which was
+untouched, and then to the pool of blood in his study. The sight of the
+latter frightened the servants so much that they did not notice at first
+that there was no sign of the pastor himself, whom they now knew must
+have been murdered. When they finally came to themselves sufficiently to
+take some action, the man hurried off to call the magistrate, and Liska
+ran to the asylum to fetch the old doctor; the pastor's intimate friend.
+The aged housekeeper, trembling in fear, crept back to her own room and
+sat there waiting the return of the others.
+
+This was the story of the early morning as told by the three servants,
+who had already given their report in much the same words to the Count
+on his arrival and also to the magistrate. There was no reason to doubt
+the words of either the old housekeeper or of Janos, the coachman, who
+had served for more than twenty years in the rectory and whose fidelity
+was known. The girl Liska was scarcely eighteen, and her round childish
+face and big eyes dimmed with tears, corroborated her story. When they
+had told Muller all they knew, the detective sat stroking his chin, and
+looking thoughtfully at the floor. Then he raised his head and said,
+in a tone of calm friendliness: "Well, good friends, this will do for
+to-night. Now, if you will kindly give me a bite to eat and a glass of
+some light wine, I'd be very thankful. I have had no food since early
+this morning."
+
+The housekeeper and the maid disappeared, and Janos went to the stable
+to harness the Count's trap.
+
+The magnate turned to the detective. "I thank you once more that you
+have come to us. I appreciate it greatly that a stranger to our part of
+the country, like yourself, should give his time and strength to this
+problem of our obscure little village."
+
+"There is nothing else calling me, sir," answered Muller. "And the
+Budapest police will explain to headquarters at Vienna if I do not
+return at once."
+
+"Do you understand our tongue sufficiently to deal with these people
+here?"
+
+"Oh, yes; there will be no difficulty about that. I have hunted
+criminals in Hungary before. And a case of this kind does not usually
+call for disguises in which any accent would betray one."
+
+"It is a strange profession," said the doctor.
+
+"One gets used to it--like everything else," answered Muller, with a
+gentle smile. "And now I have to thank you gentlemen for your confidence
+in me."
+
+"Which I know you will justify," said the Count.
+
+Muller shrugged his shoulders: "I haven't felt anything yet--but it will
+come--there's something in the air."
+
+The Count smiled at his manner of expressing himself, but all four
+of the men had already begun to feel sympathy and respect for this
+quiet-mannered little person whose words were so few and whose voice was
+so gentle. Something in his grey eyes and in the quiet determination of
+his manner made them realise that he had won his fame honestly. With the
+enthusiasm of his race the Hungarian Count pressed the detective's hand
+in a warm grasp as he said: "I know that we can trust in you. You will
+avenge the death of my old friend and of those others who were killed
+here. The doctor and the magistrate will tell you about them to-morrow.
+We two will go home now. Telegraph us as soon as anything has happened.
+Every one in the village will be ready to help you and of course you can
+call on me for funds. Here is something to begin on." With these words
+the Count laid a silk purse full of gold pieces on the table. One more
+pressure of the hand and he was gone. The other men also left the room,
+following the Count's lead in a cordial farewell of the detective. They
+also shared the nobleman's feeling that now indeed, with this man to
+help them, could the cloud of horror that had hung over the village for
+two years, and had culminated in the present catastrophe, be lifted.
+
+The excitement of the Count's departure had died away and the steps of
+the other men on their way to the village had faded in the distance.
+There was nothing now to be heard but the rustling of the leaves and the
+creaking of the boughs as the trees bent before the onrush of the wind.
+Muller stood alone, with folded arms, in the middle of the large room,
+letting his sharp eyes wander about the circle of light thrown by the
+lamps. He was glad to be alone--for only when he was alone could his
+brain do its best work. He took up one of the lamps and opened the door
+to the room in which, as far as could be known, the murder had been
+committed. He walked in carefully and, setting the lamp on the desk,
+examined the articles lying about on it. There was nothing of importance
+to be found there. An open Bible and a sheet of paper with notes for the
+day's sermon lay on top of the desk. In the drawers, none of which were
+locked, were official papers, books, manuscripts of former sermons, and
+a few unimportant personal notes.
+
+The flame of the lamp flickered in the breeze that came from the open
+window. But Muller did not close the casement. He wanted to leave
+everything just as he had found it until daylight. When he saw that it
+was impossible to leave the lamp there he took it up again and left the
+room.
+
+"What is the use of being impatient?" he said to himself. "If I move
+about in this poor light I will be sure to ruin some possible clue. For
+there must be some clue left here. It is impossible for even the most
+practiced criminal not to leave some trace of his presence."
+
+The detective returned to the dining-room, locking the study door
+carefully behind him. The maid and the coachman returned, bringing in
+an abundant supper, and Muller sat down to do justice to the many good
+things on the tray. When the maid returned to take away the dishes
+she inquired whether she should put the guest chamber in order for the
+detective. He told her not to go to any trouble for his sake, that he
+would sleep in the bed in the neighbouring room.
+
+"You going to sleep in there?" said the girl, horrified.
+
+"Yes, my child, and I think I will sleep well to-night. I feel very
+tired." Liska carried the things out, shaking her head in surprise at
+this thin little man who did not seem to know what it was to be afraid.
+Half an hour later the rectory was in darkness. Before he retired,
+Muller had made a careful examination of the pastor's bedroom. Nothing
+was disturbed anywhere, and it was evident that the priest had not made
+any preparations for the night, but was still at work at his desk in
+the study when death overtook him. When he came to this conclusion, the
+detective went to bed and soon fell asleep.
+
+In his little hut near the asylum gates, shepherd Janci slept as sound
+as usual. But he was dreaming and he spoke in his sleep. There was no
+one to hear him, for his faithful Margit was snoring loudly. Snatches
+of sentences and broken words came from Janci's lips: "The hand--the big
+hand--I see it--at his throat--the face--the yellow face--it laughs--"
+
+Next morning the children on their way to school crept past the rectory
+with wide eyes and open mouths. And the grown people spoke in lower
+tones when their work led them past the handsome old house. It had once
+been their pride, but now it was a place of horror to them. The old
+housekeeper had succumbed to her fright and was very ill. Liska went
+about her work silently, and the farm servants walked more heavily and
+chattered less than they had before. The hump-backed sexton, who had not
+been allowed to enter the church and therefore had nothing to do, made
+an early start for the inn, where he spent most of the day telling what
+little he knew to the many who made an excuse to follow him there.
+
+The only calm and undisturbed person in the rectory household was
+Muller. He had made a thorough examination of the entire scene of the
+murder, but had not found anything at all. Of one thing alone was he
+certain: the murderer had come through the hidden passageway from the
+church. There were two reasons to believe this, one of which might
+possibly not be sufficient, but the other was conclusive.
+
+The heavy armchair before the desk, the chair on which the pastor was
+presumably sitting when the murderer entered, was half turned around,
+turned in just such a way as it would have been had the man who was
+sitting there suddenly sprung up in excitement or surprise. The chair
+was pushed back a step from the desk and turned towards the entrance
+to the passageway. Those who had been in the room during the day had
+reported that they had not touched any one of the articles of furniture,
+therefore the position of the chair was the same that had been given it
+by the man who had sat in it, by the murdered pastor himself.
+
+Of course there was always the possibility that some one had moved the
+chair without realising it. This clue, therefore, could not be looked
+upon as an absolutely certain one had it stood alone. But there was
+other evidence far more important. The great pool of blood was just
+half-way between the door of the passage and the armchair. It was here,
+therefore, that the attack had taken place. The pastor could not have
+turned in this direction in the hope of flight, for there was nothing
+here to give him shelter, no weapon that he could grasp, not even
+a cane. He must have turned in this direction to meet and greet the
+invader who had entered his room in this unusual manner. Turned to meet
+him as a brave man would, with no other weapon than the sacredness of
+his calling and his age.
+
+But this had not been enough to protect the venerable priest. The
+murderer must have made his thrust at once and his victim had sunk down
+dying on the floor of the room in which he had spent so many hours of
+quiet study, in which he had brought comfort and given advice to so many
+anxious hearts; for dying he must have been--it would be impossible for
+a man to lose so much blood and live.
+
+"The struggle," thought the detective, "but was there a struggle?" He
+looked about the room again, but could see nothing that showed disorder
+anywhere in its immaculate neatness. No, there could have been no
+struggle. It must have been a quick knife thrust and death at once. "Not
+a shot?" No, a shot would have been heard by the night watchman walking
+the streets near the church. The night was quiet, the window open. Some
+one in the village would have heard the noise of a shot. And it was not
+likely that the old housekeeper who slept in the room immediately below,
+slept the light sleep of the aged would have failed to have heard the
+firing of a pistol.
+
+Muller took a chair and sat down directly in front of the pool of blood,
+looking at it carefully. Suddenly he bowed his head deeper. He had
+caught sight of a fine thread of the red fluid which had been drawn
+out for about a foot or two in the direction towards the door to the
+dining-room. What did that mean? Did it mean that the murderer went out
+through that door, dragging something after him that made this delicate
+line? Muller bent down still deeper. The sun shone brightly on the
+floor, sending its clear rays obliquely through the window. The sharp
+eyes which now covered every inch of the yellow-painted floor discovered
+something else. They discovered that this red thread curved slightly and
+had a continuation in a fine scratch in the paint of the floor. Muller
+followed up this scratch and it led him over towards the window and then
+back again in wide curves, then out again under the desk and finally,
+growing weaker and weaker, it came back to the neighbourhood of the pool
+of blood, but on the opposite side of it. Muller got down on his hands
+and knees to follow up the scratch. He did not notice the discomfort of
+his position, his eyes shone in excitement and a deep flush glowed in
+his cheeks. Also, he began to whistle softly.
+
+Joseph Muller, the bloodhound of the Austrian police, had found a clue,
+a clue that soon would bring him to the trail he was seeking. He did not
+know yet what he could do with his clue. But this much he knew; sooner
+or later this scratch in the floor would lead him to the murderer. The
+trail might be long and devious; but he would follow it and at its end
+would be success. He knew that this scratch had been made after the
+murder was committed; this was proved by the blood that marked its
+beginning. And it could not have been made by any of those who entered
+the room during the day because by that time the blood had dried. This
+strange streak in the floor, with its weird curves and spirals, could
+have been made only by the murderer. But how? With what instrument?
+There was the riddle which must be solved.
+
+And now Muller, making another careful examination of the floor, found
+something else. It was something that might be utterly unimportant or
+might be of great value. It was a tiny bit of hardened lacquer which he
+found on the floor beside one of the legs of the desk. It was rounded
+out, with sharp edges, and coloured grey with a tiny zigzag of yellow
+on its surface. Muller lifted it carefully and looked at it keenly.
+This tiny bit of lacquer had evidently been knocked off from some convex
+object, but it was impossible to tell at the moment just what sort of an
+object it might have been. There are so many different things which are
+customarily covered with lacquer. However, further examination brought
+him down to a narrower range of subjects. For on the inside of the
+lacquer he found a shred of reddish wood fibre. It must have been a
+wooden object, therefore, from which the lacquer came, and the wood had
+been of reddish tinge.
+
+Muller pondered the matter for a little while longer. Then he placed his
+discovery carefully in the pastor's emptied tobacco-box, and dropped
+the box in his own pocket. He closed the window and the door to the
+dining-room, lit a lamp, and entered the passageway leading to the
+vestry. It was a short passageway, scarcely more than a dozen paces
+long.
+
+The walls were whitewashed, the floor tiled and the entire passage shone
+in neatness. Muller held the light of his lamp to every inch of it, but
+there was nothing to show that the criminal had gone through here with
+the body of his victim.
+
+"The criminal"--Muller still thought of only one. His long experience
+had taught him that the most intricate crimes were usually committed by
+one man only. The strength necessary for such a crime as this did not
+deceive him either. He knew that in extraordinary moments extraordinary
+strength will come to the one who needs it.
+
+He now passed down the steps leading into the vestry. There was no trace
+of any kind here either. The door into the vestry was not locked. It was
+seldom locked, they had told him, for the vestry itself was closed by
+a huge carved portal with a heavy ornamented iron lock that could be
+opened only with the greatest noise and trouble. This door was locked
+and closed as it had been since yesterday morning. Everything in the
+vestry was in perfect order; the priest's garments and the censers
+all in their places. Muller assured himself of this before he left the
+little room. He then opened the glass door that led down by a few steps
+into the church.
+
+It was a beautiful old church, and it was a rich church also. It was
+built in the older Gothic style, and its heavy, broad-arched walls, its
+massive columns would have made it look cold and bare had not handsome
+tapestries, the gift of the lady of the manor, covered the walls. Fine
+old pictures hung here and there above the altars, and handsome stained
+glass windows broke the light that fell into the high vaulted interior.
+There were three great altars in the church, all of them richly
+decorated. The main altar stood isolated in the choir. In the open space
+behind it was the entrance to the crypt, now veiled in a mysterious
+twilight. Heavy silver candlesticks, three on a side, stood on the
+altar. The pale gold of the tabernacle door gleamed between them.
+
+Muller walked through the silent church, in which even his light
+steps resounded uncannily. He looked into each of the pews, into the
+confessionals, he walked around all the columns, he climbed up into the
+pulpit, he did everything that the others had done before him yesterday.
+And as with them, he found nothing that would indicate that the murderer
+had spent any time in the church. Finally he turned back once more to
+the main altar on his way out. But he did not leave the church as he
+intended. His last look at the altar had showed him something that
+attracted his attention and he walked up the three steps to examine it
+more closely.
+
+What he had seen was something unusual about one of the silver
+candlesticks. These candlesticks had three feet, and five of them were
+placed in such a way that the two front feet were turned toward the
+spectator. But on the end candlestick nearest Muller the single foot
+projected out to the front of the altar. This candlestick therefore had
+been set down hastily, not placed carefully in the order of things as
+were the others.
+
+And not only this. The heavy wax candle which was in the candlestick
+was burned down about a finger's breadth more than the others, for
+these were all exactly of a height. Muller bent still nearer to the
+candlestick, but he saw that the dim light in the church was not
+sufficient. He went to one of the smaller side altars, took a candle
+from there, lit it with one of the matches that he found in his own
+pocket and returned with the burning candle to the main altar. The steps
+leading up to this altar were covered by a large rug with a white ground
+and a pattern of flowers. Looking carefully at it the detective saw a
+tiny brown spot, the mark of a burn, upon one of the white surfaces.
+Beside it lay a half used match.
+
+Walking around this carefully, Muller approached the candlestick that
+interested him and holding up his light he examined every inch of its
+surface. He found what he was looking for. There were dark red spots
+between the rough edges of the silver ornamentation.
+
+"Then the body is somewhere around here," thought the detective and came
+down from the steps, still holding the burning candle.
+
+He walked slowly to the back of the altar. There was a little table
+there such as held the sacred dishes for the communion service, and the
+little carpet-covered steps which the sexton put out for the pastor when
+he took the monstrance from the high-built tabernacle. That was all that
+was to be seen in the dark corner behind the altar. Holding his candle
+close to the floor Muller discovered an iron ring fastened to one of the
+big stone flags. This must be the entrance to the crypt.
+
+Muller tried to raise the flag and was astonished to find how easily
+it came up. It was a square of reddish marble, the same with which the
+entire floor of the church was tiled. This flag was very thin and could
+easily be raised and placed back against the wall. Muller took up his
+candle, too greatly excited to stop to get a stick for it. He felt
+assured that now he would soon be able to solve at least a part of the
+mystery. He climbed down the steps carefully and found that they led
+into the crypt as he supposed. They were kept spotlessly clean, as
+was the entire crypt as far as he could see it by the light of his
+flickering candle. He was not surprised to discover that the air was
+perfectly pure here. There must be windows or ventilators somewhere,
+this he knew from the way his candle behaved.
+
+The ancient vault had a high arched ceiling and heavy massive pillars.
+It was a subterranean repetition of the church above. There had
+evidently been a convent attached to this church at one time; for here
+stood a row of simple wooden coffins all exactly alike, bearing each one
+upon its lid a roughly painted cross surrounded by a wreath. Thus were
+buried the monks of days long past.
+
+Muller walked slowly through the rows of coffins looking eagerly to each
+side. Suddenly he stopped and stood still. His hand did not tremble but
+his thin face was pale--pale as that face which looked up at him out of
+one of the coffins. The lid of the coffin stood up against the wall and
+Muller saw that there were several other empty ones further on, waiting
+for their silent occupants.
+
+The body in the open coffin before which Muller stood was the body of
+the man who had been missing since the day previous. He lay there quite
+peacefully, his hands crossed over his breast, his eyes closed, a line
+of pain about his lips. In the crossed fingers was a little bunch of
+dark yellow roses. At the first glance one might almost have thought
+that loving hands had laid the old pastor in his coffin. But the red
+stain on the white cloth about his throat, and the bloody disorder of
+his snow-white hair contrasted sadly with the look of peace on the dead
+face. Under his head was a white silk cushion, one of the cushions from
+the altar.
+
+Muller stood looking down for some time at this poor victim of a strange
+crime, then he turned to go.
+
+He wanted to know one thing more: how the murderer had left the crypt.
+The flame of his candle told him, for it nearly went out in a gust of
+wind that came down the opening right above him. This was a window about
+three or four feet from the floor, protected by rusty iron bars which
+had been sawed through, leaving the opening free. It was a small window,
+but it was large enough to allow a man of much greater size than Muller
+to pass through it. The detective blew out his candle and climbed up
+onto the window sill. He found himself outside, in a corner of the
+churchyard. A thicket of heavy bushes grown up over neglected graves
+completely hid the opening through which he had come. There were thorns
+on these bushes and also a few scattered roses, dark yellow roses.
+
+Muller walked thoughtfully through the churchyard. The sexton sat
+huddled in an unhappy heap at the gate. He looked up in alarm as he saw
+the detective walking towards him. Something in the stranger's face told
+the little hunchback that he had made a discovery. The sexton sprang up,
+his lips did not dare utter the question that his eyes asked.
+
+"I have found him," said the detective gravely.
+
+The hunchback sexton staggered, then recovered himself, and hurried away
+to fetch the magistrate and the doctor.
+
+An hour later the murdered pastor lay in state in the chief apartment
+of his home, surrounded by burning candles and high-heaped masses of
+flowers. But he still lay in the simple convent coffin and the little
+bunch of roses which his murderer had placed between his stiffening
+fingers had not been touched.
+
+Two days later the pastor was buried. The Count and his family led the
+train of numerous mourners and among the last was Muller.
+
+A day or two after the funeral the detective sauntered slowly through
+the main street of the village. He was not in a very good humour, his
+answer to the greeting of those who passed him was short. The children
+avoided him, for with the keenness of their kind they recognised the
+fact that this usually gentle little man was not in possession of his
+habitual calm temper. One group of boys, playing with a top, did not
+notice his coming and Muller stopped behind them to look on. Suddenly
+a sharp whistle was heard and the boys looked up from their play,
+surprised at seeing the stranger behind them. His eyes were gleaming,
+and his cheeks were flushed, and a few bars of a merry tune came in
+a keen whistle from his lips as he watched the spirals made by the
+spinning top.
+
+Before the boys could stop their play the detective had left the group
+and hastened onward to the little shop. He left it again in eager haste
+after having made his purchase, and hurried back to the rectory. The
+shop-keeper stood in the doorway looking in surprise at this grown man
+who came to buy a top. And at home in the rectory the old housekeeper
+listened in equal surprise to the humming noise over her head. She
+thought at first it might be a bee that had got in somehow. Then she
+realised that it was not quite the same noise, and having already
+concluded that it was of no use to be surprised at anything this strange
+guest might do, she continued reading her scriptures.
+
+Upstairs in the pastor's study, Muller sat in the armchair attentively
+watching the gyrations of a spinning top. The little toy, started at a
+certain point, drew a line exactly parallel to the scratch on the floor
+that had excited his thoughts and absorbed them day and night.
+
+"It was a top--a top" repeated the detective to himself again and again.
+"I don't see why I didn't think of that right away. Why, of course,
+nothing else could have drawn such a perfect curve around the room,
+unhindered by the legs of the desk. Only I don't see how a toy like that
+could have any connection with this cruel and purposeless murder. Why,
+only a fool--or a madman--"
+
+Muller sprang up from his chair and again a sharp shrill whistle came
+from his lips. "A madman!--" he repeated, beating his own forehead. "It
+could only have been a madman who committed this murder! And the
+pastor was not the first, there were two other murders here within a
+comparatively short time. I think I will take advantage of Dr. Orszay's
+invitation."
+
+Half an hour later Muller and the doctor sat together in a summer-house,
+from the windows of which one could see the park surrounding the asylum
+to almost its entire extent. The park was arranged with due regard to
+its purpose. The eye could sweep through it unhindered. There were no
+bushes except immediately along the high wall. Otherwise there were
+beautiful lawns, flower beds and groups of fine old trees with tall
+trunks.
+
+As would be natural in visiting such a place Muller had induced the
+doctor to talk about his patients. Dr. Orszay was an excellent talker
+and possessed the power of painting a personality for his listeners.
+He was pleased and flattered by the evident interest with which the
+detective listened to his remarks.
+
+"Then your patients are all quite harmless?" asked Muller thoughtfully,
+when the doctor came to a pause.
+
+"Yes, all quite harmless. Of course, there is the man who strangely
+enough considers himself the reincarnation of the famous French
+murderer, the goldsmith Cardillac, who, as you remember, kept all Paris
+in a fervour of excitement by his crimes during the reign of Louis XIV.
+But in spite of his weird mania this man is the most good-natured of
+any. He has been shut up in his room for several days now. He was a
+mechanician by trade, living in Budapest, and an unsuccessful invention
+turned his mind."
+
+"Is he a large, powerful man?" asked Muller.
+
+Dr. Orszay looked a bit surprised. "Why do you ask that? He does happen
+to be a large man of considerable strength, but in spite of it I have no
+fear of him. I have an attendant who is invaluable to me, a man of such
+strength that even the fiercest of them cannot overcome him, and yet
+with a mind and a personal magnetism which they cannot resist. He can
+always master our patients mentally and physically--most of them are
+afraid of him and they know that they must do as he says. There is
+something in his very glance which has the power to paralyse even
+healthy nerves, for it shows the strength of will possessed by this
+man."
+
+"And what is the name of this invaluable attendant?" asked Muller with a
+strange smile which the doctor took to be slightly ironical.
+
+"Gyuri Kovacz. You are amused at my enthusiasm? But consider my position
+here. I am an old man and have never been a strong man. At my age I
+would not have strength enough to force that little woman there--she
+thinks herself possessed and is quite cranky at times--to go to her own
+room when she doesn't want to. And do you see that man over there in the
+blue blouse? He is an excellent gardener but he believes himself to
+be Napoleon, and when he has his acute attacks I would be helpless to
+control him were it not for Gyuri."
+
+"And you are not afraid of Cardillac?" interrupted Muller.
+
+"Not in the least. He is as good-natured as a child and as confiding. I
+can let him walk around here as much as he likes. If it were not for the
+absurd nonsense that he talks when he has one of his attacks, and which
+frightens those who do not understand him, I could let him go free
+altogether."
+
+"Then you never let him leave the asylum grounds?
+
+"Oh, yes. I take him out with me very frequently. He is a man of
+considerable education and a very clever talker. It is quite a pleasure
+to be with him. That was the opinion of my poor friend also, my poor
+murdered friend."
+
+"The pastor?"
+
+"The pastor. He often invited Cardillac to come to the rectory with me."
+
+"Indeed. Then Cardillac knew the inside of the rectory?"
+
+"Yes. The pastor used to lend him books and let him choose them himself
+from the library shelves. The people in the village are very kind to my
+poor patients here. I have long since had the habit of taking some of
+the quieter ones with me down into the village and letting the people
+become acquainted with them. It is good for both parties. It gives
+the patients some little diversion, and it takes away the worst of
+the senseless fear these peasants had at first of the asylum and its
+inmates. Cardillac in particular is always welcome when he comes, for he
+brings the children all sorts of toys that he makes in his cell."
+
+The detective had listened attentively and once his eyes flashed and his
+lips shut tight as if to keep in the betraying whistle. Then he asked
+calmly: "But the patients are only allowed to go out when you accompany
+them, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, no; the attendants take them out sometimes. I prefer, however, to
+let them go only with Gyuri, for I can depend upon him more than upon
+any of the others."
+
+"Then he and Cardillac have been out together occasionally?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite frequently. But--pardon me--this is almost like a
+cross-examination."
+
+"I beg your pardon, doctor, it's a bad habit of mine. One gets so
+accustomed to it in my profession."
+
+"What is it you want?" asked Doctor Orszay, turning to a fine-looking
+young man of superb build, who entered just then and stood by the door.
+
+"I just wanted to announce, sir, that No. 302 is quiet again!
+
+"302 is Cardillac himself, Mr. Muller, or to give him his right name,
+Lajos Varna," explained the doctor turning to his guest. "He is the
+302nd patient who has been received here in these twenty years. Then
+Cardillac is quiet again?" he asked, looking up at the young giant. "I
+am glad of that. You can announce our visit to him. This gentleman wants
+to inspect the asylum."
+
+Muller realised that this was the attendant Gyuri, and he looked at
+him attentively. He was soon clear in his own mind that this remarkably
+handsome man did not please him, in fact awoke in him a feeling of
+repulsion. The attendant's quiet, almost cat-like movements were in
+strange contrast to the massivity of his superb frame, and his large
+round eyes, shaped for open, honest glances, were shifty and cunning.
+They seemed to be asking "Are you trying to discover anything about me?"
+coupled with a threat. "For your own sake you had better not do it."
+
+When the young man had left the room Muller rose hastily and walked up
+and down several times. His face was flushed and his lips tight set.
+Suddenly he exclaimed: "I do not like this Gyuri."
+
+Dr. Orszay looked up astonished. "There are many others who do not like
+him--most of his fellow-warders for instance, and all of the patients.
+I think there must be something in the contrast of such quiet movements
+with such a big body that gets on people's nerves. But consider, Mr.
+Muller, that the man's work would naturally make him a little different
+from other people. I have known Gyuri for five years as a faithful
+and unassuming servant, always willing and ready for any duty,
+however difficult or dangerous. He has but one fault--if I may call it
+such--that is that he has a mistress who is known to be mercenary and
+hard-hearted. She lives in a neighbouring village."
+
+"For five years, you say? And how long has Cardillac been here?"
+
+"Cardillac? He has been here for almost three years."
+
+"For almost three years, and is it not almost three years--" Muller
+interrupted himself. "Are we quite alone? Is no one listening?" The
+doctor nodded, greatly surprised, and the detective continued almost in
+a whisper, "and it is just about three years now that there have
+been committed, at intervals, three terrible crimes notable from
+the cleverness with which they were carried out, and from the utter
+impossibility, apparently, of discovering the perpetrator."
+
+Orszay sprang up. His face flushed and then grew livid, and he put his
+hand to his forehead. Then he forced a smile and said in a voice
+that trembled in spite of himself: "Mr. Muller, your imagination is
+wonderful. And which of these two do you think it is that has committed
+these crimes--the perpetrator of which you have come here to find?"
+
+"I will tell you that later. I must speak to No. 302 first, and I must
+speak to him in the presence of yourself and Gyuri."
+
+The detective's deep gravity was contagious. Dr. Orszay had sufficiently
+controlled himself to remember what he had heard in former days, and
+just now recently from the district judge about this man's marvellous
+deeds. He realised that when Muller said a thing, no matter how
+extravagant it might sound, it was worth taking seriously. This
+realisation brought great uneasiness and grief to the doctor's heart,
+for he had grown fond of both of the men on whom terrible suspicion was
+cast by such an authority.
+
+Muller himself was uneasy, but the gloom that had hung over him for
+the past day or two had vanished. The impenetrable darkness that had
+surrounded the mystery of the pastor's murder had gotten on his nerves.
+He was not accustomed to work so long over a problem without getting
+some light on it. But now, since the chance watching of the spinning
+top in the street had given him his first inkling of the trail, he was
+following it up to a clear issue. The eagerness, the blissful vibrating
+of every nerve that he always felt at this stage of the game, was on him
+again. He knew that from now on what was still to be done would be easy.
+Hitherto his mind had been made up on one point; that one man alone was
+concerned in the crime. Now he understood the possibility that there
+might have been two, the harmless mechanician who fancied himself a
+dangerous murderer, and the handsome young giant with the evil eyes.
+
+The two men stood looking at each other in a silence that was almost
+hostile. Had this stranger come to disturb the peace of the refuge for
+the unfortunate and to prove that Dr. Orszay, the friend of all the
+village, had unwittingly been giving shelter to such criminals?
+
+"Shall we go now?" asked the detective finally.
+
+"If you wish it, sir," answered the doctor in a tone that was decidedly
+cool.
+
+Muller held out his hand. "Don't let us be foolish, doctor. If you
+should find yourself terribly deceived, and I should have been the means
+of proving it, promise me that you will not be angry with me."
+
+Orszay pressed the offered hand with a deep sigh. He realised the
+other's position and knew it was his duty to give him every possible
+assistance. "What is there for me to do now?" he asked sadly.
+
+"You must see that all the patients are shut up in their cells so that
+the other attendants are at our disposal if we need them. Varna's room
+has barred windows, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I suppose also that it has but one door. I believe you told me that
+your asylum was built on the cell system."
+
+"Yes, there is but one door to the room."
+
+"Let the four other attendants stand outside this door. Gyuri will be
+inside with us. Tell the men outside that they are to seize and hold
+whomever I shall designate to them. I will call them in by a whistle.
+You can trust your people?"
+
+"Yes, I think I can."
+
+"Well, I have my revolver," said Muller calmly, "and now we can go."
+
+They left the room together, and found Gyuri waiting for them a little
+further along the corridor. "Aren't you well, sir?" the attendant asked
+the doctor, with an anxious note in his voice.
+
+The man's anxiety was not feigned. He was really a faithful servant in
+his devotion to the old doctor, although Muller had not misjudged him
+when he decided that this young giant was capable of anything. Good and
+evil often lie so close together in the human heart.
+
+The doctor's emotion prevented him from speaking, and the detective
+answered in his place. "It is a sudden indisposition," he said. "Lead
+me to No. 302, who is waiting for us, I suppose. The doctor wants to lie
+down a moment in his own room."
+
+Gyuri glanced distrustfully at this man whom he had met for the first
+time to-day, but who was no stranger to him--for he had already learned
+the identity of the guest in the rectory. Then he turned his eyes on his
+master. The latter nodded and said: "Take the gentleman to Varna's room.
+I will follow shortly."
+
+The cell to which they went was the first one at the head of the
+staircase. "Extremely convenient," thought Muller to himself. It was a
+large room, comfortably furnished and filled now with the red glow of
+the setting sun. A turning-lathe stood by the window and an elderly man
+was at work at it. Gyuri called to him and he turned and rose when he
+saw a stranger.
+
+Lajos Varna was a tall, loose-jointed man with sallow skin and tired
+eyes. He gave only a hasty glance at his visitor, then looked at Gyuri.
+The expression in his eyes as he turned them on those of the warder
+was like the look in the eyes of a well-trained dog when it watches its
+master's face. Gyuri's brows were drawn close together and his mouth
+set tight to a narrow line. His eyes fairly bored themselves into the
+patient's eyes with an expression like that of a hypnotiser.
+
+Muller knew now what he wanted to know. This young man understood how
+to bend the will of others, even the will of a sick mind, to his own
+desires. The little silent scene he had watched had lasted just the
+length of time it had taken the detective to walk through the room and
+hold out his hand to the patient.
+
+"I don't want to disturb you, Mr. Varna," he said in a friendly tone,
+with a motion towards the bench from which the mechanician had just
+arisen. Varna sat down again, obedient as a child. He was not always so
+apparently, for Muller saw a red mark over the fingers of one hand
+that was evidently the mark of a blow. Gyuri was not very choice in the
+methods by which he controlled the patients confided to his care.
+
+"May I sit down also?" asked Muller.
+
+Varna pushed forward a chair. His movements were like those of an
+automaton.
+
+"And now tell me how you like it here?" began the detective. Varna
+answered with a low soft voice, "Oh, I like it very much, sir." As he
+spoke he looked up at Gyuri, whose eyes still bore their commanding
+expression.
+
+"They treat you kindly here?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"The doctor is very good to you?"
+
+"Ah, the doctor is so good!" Varna's dull eyes brightened.
+
+"And the others are good to you also?"
+
+"Oh, yes." The momentary gleam in the sad eye had vanished again.
+
+"Where did you get this red scar?"
+
+The patient became uneasy, he moved anxiously on his chair and looked up
+at Gyuri. It was evident that he realised there would be more red marks
+if he told the truth to this stranger.
+
+Muller did not insist upon an answer. "You are uneasy and nervous
+sometimes, aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I have been--nervous--lately."
+
+"And they don't let you go out at such times?"
+
+"Why, I--no, I may not go out at such times."
+
+"But the doctor takes you with him sometimes--the doctor or Gyuri?"
+asked the detective.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I haven't had him out with me for weeks," interrupted the attendant.
+He seemed particularly anxious to have the "for weeks" clearly heard by
+this inconvenient questioner.
+
+Muller dropped this subject and took up another. "They tell me you are
+very fond of children, and I can see that you are making toys for them
+here."
+
+"Yes, I love children, and I am so glad they are not afraid of me."
+These words were spoken with more warmth and greater interest than
+anything the man had yet said.
+
+"And they tell me that you take gifts with you for the children every
+time you go down to the village. This is pretty work here, and it must
+be a pleasant diversion for you." Muller had taken up a dainty little
+spinning-wheel which was almost completed. "Isn't it made from the wood
+of a red yew tree?"
+
+"Yes, the doctor gave me a whole tree that had been cut down in the
+park."
+
+"And that gave you wood for a long time?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; I have been making toys from it for months." Varna had
+become quite eager and interested as he handed his visitor a number of
+pretty trifles. The two had risen from their chairs and were leaning
+over the wide window seat which served as a store-house for the wares
+turned out by the busy workman. They were toys, mostly, all sorts
+of little pots and plates, dolls' furniture, balls of various sizes,
+miniature bowling pins, and tops. Muller took up one of the latter.
+
+"How very clever you are, and how industrious," he exclaimed, sitting
+down again and turning the top in his hands. It was covered with grey
+varnish with tiny little yellow stripes painted on it. Towards the lower
+point a little bit of the varnish had been broken off and the reddish
+wood underneath was visible. The top was much better constructed than
+the cheap toys sold in the village. It was hollow and contained in its
+interior a mechanism started by a pressure on the upper end. Once set in
+motion the little top spun about the room for some time.
+
+"Oh, isn't that pretty! Is this mechanism your own invention?" asked
+Muller smiling. Gyuri watched the top with drawn brows and murmured
+something about "childish foolishness."
+
+"Yes, it is my own invention," said the patient, flattered. He started
+out on an absolutely technical explanation of the mechanism of tops in
+general and of his own in particular, an explanation so lucid and so
+well put that no one would have believed the man who was speaking was
+not in possession of the full powers of his mind.
+
+Muller listened very attentively with unfeigned interest.
+
+"But you have made more important inventions than this, haven't you?" he
+asked when the other stopped talking. Varna's eyes flashed and his voice
+dropped to a tone of mystery as he answered: "Yes indeed I have. But I
+did not have time to finish them. For I had become some one else."
+
+"Some one else?"
+
+"Cardillac," whispered Varna, whose mania was now getting the best of
+him again.
+
+"Cardillac? You mean the notorious goldsmith who lived in Paris 200
+years ago? Why, he's dead."
+
+Varna's pale lips curled in a superior smile. "Oh, yes--that's
+what people think, but it's a mistake. He is still alive--I am--I
+have--although of course there isn't much opportunity here--"
+
+Gyuri cleared his throat with a rasping noise.
+
+"What were you saying, friend Cardillac?" asked Muller with a great show
+of interest.
+
+"I have done things here that nobody has found out. It gives me great
+pleasure to see the authorities so helpless over the riddles I have
+given them to solve. Oh, indeed, sir, you would never imagine how stupid
+they are here."
+
+"In other words, friend Cardillac, you are too clever for the
+authorities here?
+
+"Yes, that's it," said the insane man greatly flattered. He raised his
+head proudly and smiled down at his guest. At this moment the doctor
+came into the room and Gyuri walked forward to the group at the window.
+
+"You are making him nervous, sir," he said to Muller in a tone that was
+almost harsh.
+
+"You can leave that to me," answered the detective calmly. "And you will
+please place yourself behind Mr. Varna's chair, not behind mine. It is
+your eyes that are making him uneasy."
+
+The attendant was alarmed and lost control of himself for a moment.
+"Sir!" he exclaimed in an outburst.
+
+"My name is Muller, in case you do not know it already, Joseph Muller,
+detective. Gyuri Kovacz, you will do what I tell you to! I am master
+here just now. Is it not so, doctor?"
+
+"Yes, it is so," said the doctor.
+
+"What does this mean?" murmured Gyuri, turning pale.
+
+"It means that the best thing for you to do is to stand up against that
+wall and fold your arms on your breast," said Muller firmly. He took a
+revolver from his pocket and laid it beside him on the turning-lathe.
+The young giant, cowed by the sight of the weapon, obeyed the commands
+of this little man whom he could have easily crushed with a single blow.
+
+Dr. Orszay sank down on the chair beside the door. Muller, now
+completely master of the situation, turned to the insane man who stood
+looking at him in a surprise which was mingled with admiration.
+
+"And now, my dear Cardillac, you must tell us of your great deeds here,"
+said the detective in a friendly tone.
+
+The unfortunate man bent over him with shining eyes and whispered: "But
+you'll shoot him first, won't you?"
+
+"Why should I shoot him?"
+
+"Because he won't let me say a word without beating me. He is so cruel.
+He sticks pins into me if I don't do what he wants."
+
+"Why didn't you tell the doctor?"
+
+"Gyuri would have treated me worse than ever then. I am a coward, sir,
+I'm so afraid of pain and he knew that--he knew that I was afraid of
+being hurt and that I'd always do what he asked of me. And because I
+don't like to be hurt myself I always finished them off quickly."
+
+"Finished who?"
+
+"Why, there was Red Betty, he wanted her money."
+
+"Who wanted it?"
+
+"Gyuri."
+
+The man at the wall moved when he heard this terrible accusation. But
+the detective took up his revolver again. "Be quiet there!" he called,
+with a look such as he might have thrown at an angry dog. Gyuri stood
+quiet again but his eyes shot flames and great drops stood out on his
+forehead.
+
+"Now go on, friend Cardillac," continued the detective. "We were talking
+about Red Betty."
+
+"I strangled her. She did not even know she was dying. She was such a
+weak old woman, it really couldn't have hurt her."
+
+"No, certainly not," said Muller soothingly, for he saw that the thought
+that his victim might have suffered was beginning to make the madman
+uneasy. "You needn't worry about that. Old Betty died a quiet death. But
+tell me, how did Gyuri know that she had money?"
+
+"The whole village knew it. She laid cards for people and earned a lot
+of money that way. She was very stingy and saved every bit. Somebody saw
+her counting out her money once, she had it in a big stocking under her
+bed. People in the village talked about it. That's how Gyuri heard of
+it."
+
+"And so he commanded you to kill Betty and steal her money?"
+
+"Yes. He knew that I loved to give them riddles to guess, just as I did
+in Paris so long ago."
+
+"Oh, yes, you're Cardillac, aren't you? And now tell us about the
+smith's swineherd."
+
+"You mean Janos? Oh, he was a stupid lout," answered Varna scornfully.
+
+"He had cast an eye on the beautiful Julcsi, Gyuri's mistress, so of
+course I had to kill him."
+
+"Did you do that alone?"
+
+"No, Gyuri helped me."
+
+"Why did you cut the bridge supports?"
+
+"Because I enjoy giving people riddles, as I told you. But Gyuri forbade
+me to kill people uselessly. I liked the chance of getting out though.
+The doctor's so good to me and the others too. Gyuri is good to me
+when I have done what he wanted. But you see, Mr. Muller, I am like a
+prisoner here and that makes me angry. I made Gyuri let me out nights
+sometimes."
+
+"You mean he let you out alone, all alone?"
+
+"Yes, of course, for I threatened to tell the doctor everything if he
+didn't."
+
+"You wouldn't have dared do that."
+
+"No, that's true," smiled Varna slyly. "But Gyuri was afraid I might
+do it, for he isn't always strong enough to frighten me with his
+eyes. Those were the hours when I could make him afraid--I liked those
+hours--"
+
+"What did you do when you were out alone at night?"
+
+"I just walked about. I set fire to a tree in the woods once, then the
+rain came and put it out. Once I killed a dog and another time I cut
+through the bridge supports. That took me several hours to do and made
+me very tired. But it was such fun to know that people would be worrying
+and fussing about who did it."
+
+Varna rubbed his hands gleefully. He did not look the least bit
+malicious but only very much amused. The doctor groaned. Gyuri's great
+body trembled, his arms shook, but he did not make a single voluntary
+movement. He saw the revolver in Muller's hand and felt the keen grey
+eyes resting on him in pitiless calm.
+
+"And now tell us about the pastor?" said the detective in a firm clear
+voice.
+
+"Oh, he was a dear, good gentleman," said No. 302 with an expression of
+pitying sorrow on his face. "I owed him much gratitude; that's why I put
+the roses in his hand."
+
+"Yes, but you murdered him first."
+
+"Of course, Gyuri told me to."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"He hated the pastor, for the old gentleman had no confidence in him."
+
+"Is this true?" Muller turned to the doctor.
+
+"I did not notice it," said Orszay with a voice that showed deep sorrow.
+
+"And you?" Muller's eyes bored themselves into the orbs of the young
+giant, now dulled with fear.
+
+Gyuri started and shivered. "He looked at me sharply every now and
+then," he murmured.
+
+"And that was why he was killed?"
+
+The warder's head sank on his breast.
+
+"No, not only for that reason," continued No. 302. "Gyuri needed money
+again. He ordered me to bring him the silver candlesticks off the
+altar."
+
+"Murder and sacrilege," said the detective calmly.
+
+"No, I did not rob the church. When I had buried the reverend gentleman
+I heard the cock crowing. I was afraid I might get home here too late
+and I forgot the candlesticks. I had to stop to wash my hands in the
+brook. While I was there I saw shepherd Janci coming along and I hid
+behind the willows. He almost discovered me once, but Janci's a
+dreamer, he sees things nobody else sees--and he doesn't see things that
+everybody else does see. I couldn't help laughing at his sleepy face.
+But I didn't laugh when I came back to the asylum. Gyuri was waiting for
+me at the door. When he saw that I hadn't brought the candlesticks he
+beat me and tortured me worse than he'd ever done before."
+
+"And you didn't tell anyone?"
+
+"Why, no; because I was afraid that if I told on him, I'd never be able
+to go out again."
+
+"And you, quite alone, could carry the pastor's body out of his room?"
+
+"I am very strong."
+
+"How did you arrange it that there should be no traces of blood to
+betray you?"
+
+"I waited until the body had stiffened, then I tied up the wound and
+carried him down into the crypt."
+
+"Why did you do that?"
+
+"I didn't want to leave him in that horrid pool of blood."
+
+"You were sorry for him then?"
+
+"Why, yes; it looked so horrid to see him lying there--and he had
+always been so good to me. He was so good to me that very evening when I
+entered his study.
+
+"He recognised you?
+
+"Certainly. He sprang up from his chair when I came in through the
+passage from the church. I saw that he was startled, but he smiled at me
+and reached out his hand to me and said: 'What brings you here, my dear
+Cardillac?' And then I struck. I wanted him to die with that smile on
+his lips. It is beautiful to see a man die smiling, it shows that he has
+not been afraid of death. He was dead at once. I always kill that way--I
+know just how to strike and where. I killed more than a hundred people
+years ago in Paris, and I didn't leave one of them the time for even a
+sigh. I was renowned for that--I had a kind heart and a sure hand."
+
+Muller interrupted the dreadful imaginings of the madman with a
+question. "You got into the house through the crypt?"
+
+"Yes, through the crypt. I found the window one night when I was
+prowling around in the churchyard. When I knew that the pastor was to be
+the next, I cut through the window bars. Gyuri went into the church one
+day when nobody was there and found out that it was easy to lift the
+stone over the entrance to the crypt. He also learned that the doors
+from the church to the vestry were never locked. I knew how to find the
+passageway, because I had been through it several times on my visits to
+the rectory. But it was a mere chance that the door into the pastor's
+study was unlocked."
+
+"A chance that cost the life of a worthy man," said the detective
+gravely.
+
+Varna nodded sadly. "But he didn't suffer, he was dead at once."
+
+"And now tell me what this top was doing there?" No. 302 looked at the
+detective in great surprise, and then laid his hand on the latter's arm.
+"How did you know that I had the top there?" he asked with a show of
+interest.
+
+"I found its traces in the room, and it was those traces that led me
+here to you," answered Muller.
+
+"How strange!" remarked Varna. "Are you like shepherd Janci that you can
+see the things others don't see?"
+
+"No, I have not Janci's gift. It would be a great comfort to me and a
+help to the others perhaps if I had. I can only see things after they
+have happened."
+
+"But you can see more than others--the others did not see the traces of
+the top?"
+
+"My business is to see more than others see," said Muller. "But you have
+not told me yet what the top was doing there. Why did you take a toy
+like that with you when you went out on such an errand?"
+
+"It was in my pocket by chance. When I reached for my handkerchief to
+quench the flow of blood the top came out with it. I must have touched
+the spring without knowing it, for the top began to spin. I stood still
+and watched it, then I ran after it. It spun around the room and finally
+came back to the body. So did I. The pastor was quite still and dead by
+that time."
+
+"You have heard everything, Dr. Orszay?" asked the detective, rising
+from his chair.
+
+"Yes, I have heard everything," answered the venerable head of the
+asylum. He was utterly crushed by the realisation that all this tragedy
+and horror had gone out from his house.
+
+Varna rose also. He understood perfectly that now Gyuri's power was
+at an end and he was as pleased as a child that has just received a
+present. "And now you're going to shoot him?" he asked, in the tone a
+boy would use if asking when the fireworks were to begin.
+
+Muller shook his head. "No, my dear Cardillac," he replied gravely. "He
+will not be shot--that is a death for a brave soldier--but this man has
+deserved--" He did not finish the sentence, for the warder sank to the
+floor unconscious.
+
+"What a coward!" murmured the detective scornfully, looking down at the
+giant frame that lay prostrate before him. Even in his wide experience
+he had known of no case of a man of such strength and such bestial
+cruelty, combined with such utter cowardice.
+
+Varna also stood looking down at the unconscious warder. Then he glanced
+up with a cunning smile at the other two men who stood there. The
+doctor, pale and trembling with horror, covered his face with his hands.
+Muller turned to the door to call in the attendants waiting outside.
+During the moment's pause that ensued the madman bent over his
+worktable, seized a knife that lay there and dropped on one knee beside
+the prostrate form. His hand was raised to strike when a calm voice
+said: "Fie! Cardillac, for shame! Do not belittle yourself. This man
+here is not worthy of your knife, the hangman will look after him."
+
+Varna raised his loose-jointed frame and looked about with glistening
+eyes and trembling lips. His mind was completely darkened once more.
+"I must kill him--I must have his blood--there is no one to see me," he
+murmured. "I am a hangman too--he has made a hangman of me," and again
+he bent with uplifted hand over the man who had utilised his terrible
+misfortune to make a criminal of him. But two of the waiting attendants
+seized his arms and threw him back on the floor, while the other two
+carted Gyuri out. Both unfortunates were soon securely guarded.
+
+"Do not be angry with me, doctor," said Muller gravely, as he walked
+through the garden accompanied by Orszay.
+
+Doctor Orszay laughed bitterly. "Why should I be angry with you--you
+who have discovered my inexcusable credulity?"
+
+"Inexcusable? Oh, no, doctor; it was quite natural that you should have
+believed a man who had himself so well in hand, and who knew so well
+how to play his part. When we come to think of it, we realise that
+most crimes have been made possible through some one's credulity, or
+over-confidence, a credulity which, in the light of subsequent events,
+seems quite incomprehensible. Do not reproach yourself and do not lose
+heart. Your only fault was that you did not recognise the heart of the
+beast of prey in this admirable human form."
+
+"What course will the law take?" asked Orszay. "The poor unfortunate
+madman--whose knife took all these lives--cannot be held responsible,
+can he?"
+
+"Oh, no; his misfortune protects him. But as for the other, though his
+hands bear no actual bloodstains, he is more truly a murderer than the
+unhappy man who was his tool. Hanging is too good for him. There are
+times when even I could wish that we were back in the Middle Ages, when
+it was possible to torture a prisoner.
+
+"You do not look like that sort of a man," smiled the doctor through his
+sadness.
+
+"No, I am the most good-natured of men usually, I think--the meekest
+anyway," answered Muller. "But a case like this--. However, as I said
+before, keep a stout heart, doctor, and do not waste time in unnecessary
+self-reproachings." The detective pressed the doctor's hand warmly and
+walked down the hill towards the village.
+
+He went at once to the office of the magistrate and made his report,
+then returned to the rectory and packed his grip. He arranged for its
+transport to the railway station, as he himself preferred to walk the
+inconsiderable distance. He passed through the village and had just
+entered the open fields when he met Janci with his flock. The shepherd
+hastened his steps when he saw the detective approaching.
+
+"You have found him, sir?" he exclaimed as he came up to Muller. The men
+had come to be friends by this time. The silent shepherd with the power
+of second sight had won Muller's interest at once.
+
+"Yes, I found him. It is Gyuri, the warder at the asylum."
+
+"No, sir, it is not Gyuri--Gyuri did not do it."
+
+"But when I tell you that he did?"
+
+"But I tell you, sir, that Gyuri did not do it. The man who did it--he
+has yellowish hands--I saw them--I saw big yellowish hands. Gyuri's
+hands are big, but they are brown."
+
+"Janci, you are right. I was only trying to test you. Gyuri did not do
+it; that is, he did not do it with his own hands. The man who held the
+knife that struck down the pastor was Varna, the crazy mechanician."
+
+Janci beat his forehead. "Oh, I am a foolish and useless dreamer!" he
+exclaimed; "of course it was Varna's hands that I saw. I have seen them
+a hundred times when he came down into the village, and yet when I saw
+them in the vision I did not recognise them."
+
+"We're all dreamers, Janci--and our dreams are very useless generally."
+
+"Yours are not useless, sir," said the shepherd. "If I had as much
+brains as you have, my dreams might be of some good."
+
+Muller smiled. "And if I had your visions, Janci, it would be a powerful
+aid to me in my profession."
+
+"I don't think you need them, sir. You can find out the hidden things
+without them. You are going to leave us?"
+
+"Yes, Janci, I must go back to Budapest, and from there to Vienna. They
+need me on another case."
+
+"It's a sad work, this bringing people to the gallows, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Janci, it is sometimes. But it's a good thing to be able to avenge
+crime and bring justice to the injured. Good-bye, Janci."
+
+"Good-bye, sir, and God speed you."
+
+The shepherd stood looking after the small, slight figure of the man
+who walked on rapidly through the heather. "He's the right one for the
+work," murmured Janci as he turned slowly back towards the village.
+
+An hour later Muller stood in the little waiting-room of the railway
+station writing a telegram. It was addressed to Count ----.
+
+  "Do you know the shepherd Janci?  It would be a good thing to
+  make him the official detective for the village.  He has high
+  qualifications for the profession.  If I had his gifts combined
+  with my own, not one could escape me.  I have found this one
+  however.  The guards are already taking him to you.  My work
+  here is done.  If I should be needed again I can be found at
+  Police Headquarters, Vienna.
+                                                  "Respectfully,
+                                                  "JOSEPH MULLER."
+
+While the detective was writing his message--it was one of the rare
+moments of humour that Muller allowed himself, and he wondered mildly
+what the stately Hungarian nobleman would think of it--a heavy farm
+wagon jolted over the country roads towards the little county seat.
+Sitting beside the driver and riding about the wagon were armed
+peasants. The figure of a man, securely bound, his face distorted by
+rage and fear, lay in the wagon. It was Gyuri Kovacz, who had murdered
+by the hands of another, and who was now on his way to meet the death
+that was his due.
+
+And at one of the barred windows in the big yellow house stood a
+sallow-faced man, looking out at the rising moon with sad, tired eyes.
+His lips were parted in a smile like that of a dreaming child, and he
+hummed a gentle lullaby.
+
+In his compartment of the express from Budapest to Vienna, Joseph Muller
+sat thinking over the strange events that had called him to the obscure
+little Hungarian village. He had met with many strange cases in his long
+career, but this particular case had some features which were unique.
+Muller's lips set hard and his hands tightened to fists as he murmured:
+"I've met with criminals who used strange tools, but never before have
+I met with one who had the cunning and the incredible cruelty to utilise
+the mania of an unhinged human mind. It is a thousand times worse than
+those criminals who, now and then throughout the ages, have trained
+brute beasts to murder for them. Truly, this Hungarian peasant, Gyuri
+Kovacz, deserves a high place in the infamous roll-call of the great
+criminals of history. A student of crime might almost be led to think
+that it is a pity his career has been cut short so soon. He might have
+gone far.
+
+"But for humanity's sake" (Muller's eyes gleamed), "I am thankful that I
+was able to discover this beast in human form and render him innocuous;
+he had done quite enough."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Case of The Pool of Blood in the
+Pastor's Study, by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOL OF BLOOD ***
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+Project Gutenberg Etext:  The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Joe Muller Detective Story:
+#1 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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study
+
+by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+July, 1999  [Etext #1835]
+[Date last updated: April 29, 2005]
+
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+Project Gutenberg Etext:  The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study
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+This Etext prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.
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+
+
+The Case of The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+JOE MULLER: DETECTIVE
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR'S STUDY
+
+by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner
+
+
+
+I
+
+The sun rose slowly over the great bulk of the Carpathian mountains
+lying along the horizon, weird giant shapes in the early morning
+mist.  It was still very quiet in the village.  A cock crowed here
+and there, and swallows flew chirping close to the ground, darting
+swiftly about preparing for their higher flight.  Janci the shepherd,
+apparently the only human being already up, stood beside the brook
+at the point where the old bridge spans the streamlet, still
+turbulent from the mountain floods.  Janci was cutting willows to
+make his Margit a new basket.
+
+Once the shepherd raised his head from his work, for he thought he
+heard a loud laugh somewhere in the near distance.  But all seemed
+silent and he turned back to his willows.  The beauty of the
+landscape about him was much too familiar a thing that he should
+have felt or seen its charm.  The violet hue of the distant woods,
+the red gleaming of the heather-strewn moor, with its patches of
+swamp from which the slow mist arose, the pretty little village with
+its handsome old church and attractive rectory--Janci had known it
+so long that he never stopped to realise how very charming, in its
+gentle melancholy, it all was.
+
+Also, Janci did not know that this little village of his home had
+once been a flourishing city, and that an invasion of the Turks
+had razed it to the ground leaving, as by a miracle, only the church
+to tell of former glories.
+
+The sun rose higher and higher.  And now the village awoke to its
+daily life.  Voices of cattle and noises of poultry were heard
+about the houses, and men and women began their accustomed round of
+tasks.  Janci found that he had gathered enough willow twigs by
+this time.  He tied them in a loose bundle and started on his
+homeward way.
+
+His path led through wide-stretching fields and vineyards past a
+little hill, some distance from the village, on which stood a large
+house.  It was not a pleasant house to look at, not a house one
+would care to live in, even if one did not know its use, for it
+looked bare and repellant, covered with its ugly yellow paint, and
+with all the windows secured with heavy iron bars.  The trees that
+surrounded it were tall and thick-foliaged, casting an added gloom
+over the forbidding appearance of the house.  At the foot of the
+hill was a high iron fence, cutting off what lay behind it from
+all the rest of the world.  For this ugly yellow house enclosed
+in its walls a goodly sum of hopeless human misery and misfortune.
+It was an insane asylum.
+
+For twenty years now, the asylum had stood on its hill, a source of
+superstitious terror to the villagers, but at the same time a source
+of added income.  It meant money for them, for it afforded a
+constant and ever-open market for their farm products and the output
+of their home industry.  But every now and then a scream or a harsh
+laugh would ring out from behind those barred windows, and those in
+the village who could hear, would shiver and cross themselves.
+Shepherd Janci had little fear of the big house.  His little hut
+cowered close by the high iron gates, and he had a personal
+acquaintance with most of the patients, with all of the attendants,
+and most of all, with the kind elderly physician who was the head
+of the establishment.  Janci knew them all, and had a kind word
+equally for all.  But otherwise he was a silent man, living much
+within himself.
+
+When the shepherd reached his little home, his wife came to meet
+him with a call to breakfast.  As they sat down at the table a
+shadow moved past the little window.  Janci looked up.  "Who was
+that?" asked Margit, looking up from her folded hands.  She had
+just finished her murmured prayer.
+
+"Pastor's Liska," replied Janci indifferently, beginning his meal.
+(Liska was the local abbreviation for Elizabeth.)'
+
+"In such a hurry?" thought the shepherd's wife.  Her curiosity would
+not let her rest.  "I hope His Reverence isn't ill again," she
+remarked after a while.  Janci did not hear her, for he was very
+busy picking a fly out of his milk cup.
+
+"Do you think Liska was going for the old man?" began Margit again
+after a few minutes.
+
+The "old man" was the name given by the people of the village, more
+as a term of endearment than anything else, to the generally loved
+and respected physician who was the head of the insane asylum.  He
+had become general mentor and oracle of all the village and was
+known and loved by man, woman and child.
+
+"It's possible," answered Janci.
+
+"His Reverence didn't look very well yesterday, or maybe the old
+housekeeper has the gout again."
+
+Janci gave a grunt which might have meant anything.  The shepherd
+was a silent man.  Being alone so much had taught him to find his
+own thoughts sufficient company.  Ten minutes passed in silence
+since Margit's last question, then some one went past the window.
+There were two people this time, Liska and the old doctor.  They
+were walking very fast, running almost.  Margit sprang up and
+hurried to the door to look after them.
+
+Janci sat still in his place, but he had laid aside his spoon and
+with wide eyes was staring ahead of him, murmuring, "It's the pastor
+this time; I saw him--just as I did the others."
+
+"Shepherd, the inn-keeper wants to see you, there's something the
+matter with his cow."  Count ---- a young man, coming from the other
+direction and pushing in at the door past Margit, who stood there
+staring up the road.
+
+Janci was so deep in his own thoughts that he apparently did not
+hear the boy's words.  At all events he did not answer them, but
+himself asked an unexpected question--a question that was not
+addressed to the others in the room, but to something out and
+beyond them.  It was a strange question and it came from the lips
+of a man whose mind was not with his body at that moment--whose
+mind saw what others did not see.
+
+"Who will be the next to go?  And who will be our pastor now?"
+
+These were Janci's words.
+
+"What are you talking about, shepherd?  Is it another one of your
+visions?" exclaimed the young fellow who stood there before him.
+Janci rubbed his hands over his eyes and seemed to come down to
+earth with a start.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Ferenz?  What do you want of me?"
+
+The boy gave his message again, and Janci nodded good-humouredly
+and followed him out of the house.  But both he and his young
+companion were very thoughtful as they plodded along the way.  The
+boy did not dare to ask any questions, for he knew that the shepherd
+was not likely to answer.  There was a silent understanding among
+the villagers that no one should annoy Janci in any way, for they
+stood in a strange awe of him, although he was the most
+good-natured mortal under the sun.
+
+While the shepherd and the boy walked toward the inn, the old
+doctor and Liska had hurried onward to the rectory.  They were met
+at the door by the aged housekeeper, who staggered down the path
+wringing her hands, unable to give voice to anything but
+inarticulate expressions of grief and terror.  The rest of the
+household and the farm hands were gathered in a frightened group
+in the great courtyard of the stately rectory which had once been
+a convent building.  The physician hurried up the stairs into the
+pastor's apartments.  These were high sunny and airy rooms with
+arched ceilings, deep window seats, great heavy doors and
+handsomely ornamented stoves.  The simple modern furniture appeared
+still more plain and common-place by contrast with the huge spaces
+of the building.
+
+In one of the rooms a gendarme was standing beside the window.  The
+man saluted the physician, then shrugged his shoulders with an
+expression of hopelessness.  The doctor returned a silent greeting
+and passed through into the next apartment.  The old man was paler
+than usual and his face bore an expression of pain and surprise,
+the same expression that showed in the faces of those gathered
+downstairs.  The room he now entered was large like the others, the
+walls handsomely decorated, and every corner of it was flooded with
+sunshine.  There were two men in this room, the village magistrate
+and the notary.  Their expression, as they held out their hands
+to the doctor, showed that his coming brought great relief.  And
+there was something else in the room, something that drew the eyes
+of all three of the men immediately after their silent greeting.
+
+This was a great pool of blood which lay as a hideous stain on the
+otherwise clean yellow-painted floor.  The blood must have flowed
+from a dreadful wound, from a severed artery even, the doctor
+thought, there was such a quantity of it.  It had already dried and
+darkened, making its terrifying ugliness the more apparent.
+
+"This is the third murder in two years," said the magistrate in a
+low voice.
+
+"And the most mysterious of all of them," added the clerk.
+
+"Yes, it is," said the doctor.  "And there is not a trace of the
+body, you say?--or a clue as to where they might have taken the
+dead--or dying man?"
+
+With these words he looked carefully around the room, but there
+was no more blood to be seen anywhere.  Any spot would have been
+clearly visible on the light-coloured floor.  There was nothing
+else to tell of the horrible crime that had been committed here,
+nothing but the great, hideous, brown-red spot in the middle of
+the room.
+
+"Have you made a thorough search for the body?" asked the doctor.
+
+The magistrate shook his head.  "No, I have done nothing to speak
+of yet.  We have been waiting for you.  There is a gendarme at the
+gate; no one can go in or out without being seen."
+
+"Very well, then, let us begin our search now."
+
+The magistrate and his companion turned towards the door of the
+room but the doctor motioned them to come back.  "I see you do not
+know the house as well as I do," he said, and led the way towards
+a niche in the side of the wall, which was partially filled by a
+high bookcase.
+
+"Ah--that is the entrance of the passage to the church?" asked
+the magistrate in surprise.
+
+"Yes, this is it.  The door is not locked."
+
+"You mean you believe--"
+
+"That the murderers came in from the church?  Why not?  It is
+quite possible."
+
+"To think of such a thing!" exclaimed the notary with a shake of
+his head.
+
+The doctor laughed bitterly.  "To those who are planning a murder,
+a church is no more than any other place.  There is a bolt here as
+you see.  I will close this bolt now.  Then we can leave the room
+knowing that no one can enter it without being seen."
+
+The simple furniture of the study, a desk, a sofa, a couple of
+chairs and several bookcases, gave no chance of any hiding place
+either for the body of the victim or for the murderers.  When the
+men left the room the magistrate locked the door and put the key
+in his own pocket.  The gendarme in the neighbouring apartment was
+sent down to stand in the courtyard at the entrance to the house.
+The sexton, a little hunchback, was ordered to remain in the vestry
+at the other end of the passage from the church to the house.
+
+Then the thorough search of the house began.  Every room in both
+stories, every corner of the attic and the cellar, was looked over
+thoroughly.  The stable, the barns, the garden and even the well
+underwent a close examination.  There was no trace of a body
+anywhere, not even a trail of blood, nothing which would give the
+slightest clue as to how the murderers had entered, how they had
+fled, or what they had done with their victim.
+
+The great gate of the courtyard was closed.  The men, reinforced by
+the farm hands, entered the church, while Liska and the dairy-maids
+huddled in the servants' dining-room in a trembling group around
+the old housekeeper.  The search in the church as well as in the
+vestry was equally in vain.  There was no trace to be found there
+any more than in the house.
+
+Meanwhile, during these hours of anxious seeking, the rumour of
+another terrible crime had spread through the village, and a crowd
+that grew from minute to minute gathered in front of the closed
+gates to the rectory, in front of the church, the closed doors of
+which did not open although it was a high feast day.  The utter
+silence from the steeple, where the bells hung mute, added to the
+spreading terror.  Finally the doctor came out from the rectory,
+accompanied by the magistrate, and announced to the waiting
+villagers that their venerable pastor had disappeared under
+circumstances which left no doubt that he had met his death at
+the hand of a murderer.  The peasants listened in shuddering silence,
+the men pale-faced, the women sobbing aloud with frightened children
+hanging to their skirts.  Then at the magistrate's order, the crowd
+dispersed slowly, going to their homes, while a messenger set off
+to the near-by county seat.
+
+It was a weird, sad Easter Monday.  Even nature seemed to feel the
+pressure of the brooding horror, for heavy clouds piled up towards
+noon and a chill wind blew fitfully from the north, bending the
+young corn and the creaking tree-tops, and moaning about the
+straw-covered roofs.  Then an icy cold rain descended on the village,
+sending the children, the only humans still unconscious of the fear
+that had come on them all, into the houses to play quietly in the
+corner by the hearth.
+
+There was nothing else spoken of wherever two or three met together
+throughout the village except this dreadful, unexplainable thing
+that had happened in the rectory.  The little village inn was full
+to overflowing and the hum of voices within was like the noise of
+an excited beehive.  Everyone had some new explanation, some new
+guess, and it was not until the notary arrived, looking even more
+important than usual, that silence fell upon the excited throng.
+But the expectations aroused by his coming were not fulfilled.  The
+notary knew no more than the others although he had been one of the
+searchers in the rectory.  But he was in no haste to disclose his
+ignorance, and sat wrapped in a dignified silence until some one
+found courage to question him.
+
+"Was there nothing stolen?" he was asked.
+
+"No, nothing as far as we can tell yet.  But if it was the gypsies
+--as may be likely--they are content with so little that it would
+not be noticed."
+
+"Gypsies?" exclaimed one man scornfully.  "It doesn't have to be
+gypsies, we've got enough tramps and vagabonds of our own.  Didn't
+they kill the pedlar for the sake of a bag of tobacco, and old
+Katiza for a couple of hens?"
+
+"Why do you rake up things that happened twenty years ago?" cried
+another over the table.  "You'd better tell us rather who killed Red
+Betty, and pulled Janos, the smith's farm hand, down into the swamp?"
+
+"Yes, or who cut the bridge supports, when the brook was in flood,
+so that two good cows broke through and drowned?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, if we only knew what band of robbers and villains it
+is that is ravaging our village."
+
+"And they haven't stopped yet, evidently."
+
+"This is the worst misfortune of all!  What will our poor do now
+that they have murdered our good pastor, who cared for us all like
+a father?"
+
+"He gave all he had to the poor, he kept nothing for himself."
+
+"Yes, indeed, that's how it was.  And now we can't even give this
+good man Christian burial."
+
+"Shepherd Janci knew this morning early that we were going to have
+a new pastor," whispered the landlord in the notary's ear.  The
+latter looked up astonished.  "Who said so?" he asked.
+
+"My boy Ferenz, who went to fetch him about seven o'clock.  One of
+my cows was sick."
+
+Ferenz was sent for and told his story.  The men listened with
+great interest, and the smith, a broad-shouldered elderly man,
+was particularly eager to hear, as he had always believed in the
+shepherd's power of second sight.  The tailor, who was more
+modern-minded, laughed and made his jokes at this.  But the smith
+laid one mighty hand on the other's shoulder, almost crushing the
+tailor's slight form under its weight, and said gravely: "Friend, do
+you be silent in this matter.  You've come from other parts and you
+do not know of things that have happened here in days gone by.  Janci
+can do more than take care of his sheep.  One day, when my little
+girl was playing in the street, he said to me, 'Have a care of
+Maruschka, smith!' and three days later the child was dead.  The
+evening before Red Betty was murdered he saw her in a vision lying
+in a coffin in front of her door.  He told it to the sexton, whom
+he met in the fields; and next morning they found Betty dead.  And
+there are many more things that I could tell you, but what's the
+use; when a man won't believe it's only lost talk to try to make
+him.  But one thing you should know: when Janci stares ahead of
+him without seeing what's in front of him, then the whole village
+begins to wonder what's going to happen, for Janci knows far more
+than all the rest of us put together."
+
+The smith's grave, deep voice filled the room and the others
+listened in a silence that gave assent to his words.  He had
+scarcely finished speaking, however, when there was a noise of
+galloping hoofs and rapidly rolling wagon wheels.  A tall brake
+drawn by four handsome horses dashed past in a whirlwind.
+
+"It's the Count--the Count and the district judge," said the
+landlord in a tone of respect.  The notary made a grab at his hat
+and umbrella and hurried from the room.  "That shows how much they
+thought of our pastor," continued the landlord proudly.  "For the
+Count himself has come and with four horses, too, to get here the
+more quickly.  His Reverence was a great friend of the Countess."
+
+"They didn't make so much fuss over the pedlar and Betty," murmured
+the cobbler, who suffered from a perpetual grouch.  But he followed
+the others, who paid their scores hastily and went out into the
+streets that they might watch from a distance at least what was
+going on in the rectory.  The landlord bustled about the inn to have
+everything in readiness in case the gentlemen should honour him by
+taking a meal, and perhaps even lodgings, at his house.  At the gate
+of the rectory the coachman and the maid Liska stood to receive the
+newcomers, just as five o'clock was striking from the steeple.
+
+It should have been still quite light, but it was already dusk, for
+the clouds hung heavy.  The rain had ceased, but a heavy wind came
+up which tore the delicate petals of the blossoms from the fruit
+trees and strewed them like snow on the ground beneath.  The Count,
+who was the head of one of the richest and most aristocratic
+families in Hungary, threw off his heavy fur coat and hastened up
+the stairs at the top of which his old friend and confidant, the
+venerable pastor, usually came to meet him.  To-day it was only the
+local magistrate who stood there, bowing deeply.
+
+"This is incredible, incredible!" exclaimed the Count.
+
+"It is, indeed, sir," said the man, leading the magnate through the
+dining-room into the pastor's study, where, as far as could be seen,
+the murder had been committed.  They were joined by the district
+judge, who had remained behind to give an order sending a carriage
+to the nearest railway station.  The judge, too, was serious and
+deeply shocked, for he also had greatly admired and revered the old
+pastor.  The stately rectory had been the scene of many a jovial
+gathering when the lord of the manor had made it a centre for a day's
+hunting with his friends.  The bearers of some of the proudest names
+in all Hungary had gathered in the high-arched rooms to laugh with
+the venerable pastor and to sample the excellent wines in his cellar.
+These wines, which the gentlemen themselves would send in as
+presents to the master of the rectory, would be carefully preserved
+for their own enjoyment.  Not a landed proprietor for many leagues
+around but knew and loved the old pastor, who had now so strangely
+disappeared under such terrifying circumstances.
+
+"Well, we might as well begin our examination," remarked the Count.
+"Although if Dr. Orszay's sharp eyes did not find anything, I doubt
+very much if we will.  You have asked the doctor to come here again,
+haven't you?"
+
+"Yes, your Grace!  As soon as I saw you coming I sent the sexton to
+the asylum."  Then the men went in again into the room which had
+been the scene of the mysterious crime.  The wind rattled the open
+window and blew out its white curtains.  It was already dark in the
+corners of the room, one could see but indistinctly the carvings of
+the wainscoting.  The light backs of the books, or the gold letters
+on the darker bindings, made spots of brightness in the gloom.  The
+hideous pool of blood in the centre of the floor was still plainly
+to be seen.
+
+"Judging by the loss of blood, death must have come quickly."
+
+"There was no struggle, evidently, for everything in the room was
+in perfect order when we entered it."
+
+"There is not even a chair misplaced.  His Bible is there on the
+desk, he may have been preparing for to-day's sermon."
+
+"Yes, that is the case; because see, here are some notes in his
+handwriting."
+
+The Count and Judge von Kormendy spoke these sentences at intervals
+as they made their examination of the room.  The local magistrate
+was able to answer one or two simpler questions, but for the most
+part he could only shrug his shoulders in helplessness.  Nothing had
+been seen or heard that was at all unusual during the night in the
+rectory.  When the old housekeeper was called up she could say
+nothing more than this.  Indeed, it was almost impossible for the
+old woman to say anything, her voice choked with sobs at every
+second word.  None of the household force had noticed anything
+unusual, or could remember anything at all that would throw light
+on this mystery.
+
+"Well, then, sir, we might just as well sit down and wait for the
+detective's arrival," said the judge.
+
+"You are waiting for some one besides the doctor?" asked the local
+magistrate timidly.
+
+"Yes, His Grace telegraphed to Budapest," answered the district
+judge, looking at his watch.  "And if the train is on time, the man
+we are waiting for ought to be here in an hour.  You sent the
+carriage to the station, didn't you?  Is the driver reliable?"
+
+"Yes, sir, he is a dependable man," said the old housekeeper.
+
+Dr. Orszay entered the room just then and the Count introduced him
+to the district judge, who was still a stranger to him.
+
+"I fear, Count, that our eyes will serve but little in discovering
+the truth of this mystery," said the doctor.
+
+The nobleman nodded.  "I agree with you," he replied.  "And I have
+sent for sharper eyes than either yours or mine."
+
+The doctor looked his question, and the Count continued: "When the
+news came to me I telegraphed to Pest for a police detective,
+telling them that the case was peculiar and urgent.  I received an
+answer as I stopped at the station on my way here.  This is it:
+'Detective Joseph Muller from Vienna in Budapest by chance.  Have
+sent him to take your case.'"
+
+"Muller?" exclaimed Dr. Orszay.  "Can it be the celebrated Muller,
+the most famous detective of the Austrian police?  That would indeed
+be a blessing."
+
+"I hope and believe that it is," said the Count gravely.  "I have
+heard of this man and we need such a one here that we may find the
+source of these many misfortunes which have overwhelmed our peaceful
+village for two years past.  It is indeed a stroke of good luck that
+has led a man of such gifts into our neighbourhood at a time when
+he is so greatly needed.  I believe personally that it is the same
+person or persons who have been the perpetrators of all these
+outrages and I intend once for all to put a stop to it, let it cost
+what it may."
+
+"If any one can discover the truth it will be Muller," said the
+district judge.  "It was I who told the Count how fortunate we were
+that this man, who is known to the police throughout Austria and far
+beyond the borders of our kingdom, should have chanced to be in
+Budapest and free to come to us when we called.  You and I"--he
+turned with a smile to the local magistrate--"you and I can get
+away with the usual cases of local brutality hereabouts.  But the
+cunning that is at the bottom of these crimes is one too many for
+us."
+
+The men had taken their places around the great dining-table.  The
+old housekeeper had crept out again, her terror making her forget
+her usual hospitality.  And indeed it would not have occurred to the
+guests to ask or even to wish for any refreshment.  The maid brought
+a lamp, which sent its weak rays scarcely beyond the edges of the
+big table.  The four men sat in silence for some time.
+
+"I suppose it would be useless to ask who has been coming and going
+from the rectory the last few days?" began the Count.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed, sir," said the district judge with a sigh.  "For
+if this murderer is the same who committed the other crimes he must
+live here in or near the village, and therefore must be known to
+all and not likely to excite suspicion."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," put in the doctor.  "There must be at
+least two of them.  One man alone could not have carried off the
+farm hand who was killed to the swamp where his body was found.
+Nor could one man alone have taken away the bloody body of the
+pastor.  Our venerable friend was a man of size and weight, as
+you know, and one man alone could not have dragged his body from 
+he room without leaving an easily seen trail."
+
+The judge blushed, but he nodded in affirmation to the doctor's
+words.  This thought had not occurred to him before.  In fact, the
+judge was more notable for his good will and his love of justice
+rather than for his keen intelligence.  He was as well aware of
+this as was any one else, and he was heartily glad that the Count
+had sent to the capital for reinforcements.
+
+Some time more passed in deep silence.  Each of the men was occupied
+with his own thoughts.  A sigh broke the silence now and then, and
+a slight movement when one or the other drew out his watch or raised
+his head to look at the door.  Finally, the sound of a carriage
+outside was heard.  The men sprang up.
+
+The driver's voice was heard, then steps which ascended the stairs 
+lowly and lightly, audible only because the stillness was so great.
+
+The door opened and a small, slight, smooth-shaven man with a gentle
+face and keen grey eyes stood on the threshold.  "I am Joseph
+Muller," he said with a low, soft voice.
+
+The four men in the room looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"This simple-looking individual is the man that every one is afraid
+of?" thought the Count, as he walked forward and held out his hand
+to the stranger.
+
+"I sent for you, Mr. Muller," said the magnate, conscious of his
+stately size and appearance, as well as of his importance in the
+presence of a personage who so little looked what his great fame
+might have led one to expect.
+
+"Then you are Count ---- ?" answered Muller gently.  "I was in
+Budapest, having just finished a difficult case which took me there.
+They told me that a mysterious crime had happened in your
+neighbourhood, and sent me here to take charge of it.  You will
+pardon any ignorance I may show as a stranger to this locality.
+I will do my best and it may be possible that I can help you."
+
+The Count introduced the other gentlemen in order and they sat down
+again at the table.
+
+"And now what is it you want me for, Count?" asked Muller.
+
+"There was a murder committed in this house," answered the Count.
+
+"When?"
+
+"Last night."
+
+"Who is the victim?"
+
+"Our pastor."
+
+"How was he killed?"
+
+"We do not know."
+
+"You are not a physician, then?" asked Muller, turning to Orszay.
+
+"Yes, I am," answered the latter.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The body is missing," said Orszay, somewhat sharply.
+
+"Missing?"  Muller became greatly interested.  "Will you please
+lead me to the scene of the crime?" he said, rising from his chair.
+
+The others led him into the next room, the magistrate going ahead
+with a lamp.  The judge called for more lights and the group stood
+around the pool of blood on the floor of the study.  Muller's arms
+were crossed on his breast as he stood looking down at the hideous
+spot.  There was no terror in his eyes, as in those of the others,
+but only a keen attention and a lively interest.
+
+"Who has been in this room since the discovery?" he asked.
+
+The doctor replied that only the servants of the immediate household,
+the notary, the magistrate, and himself, then later the Count and
+the district judge entered the room.
+
+"You are quite certain that no one else has been in here?"
+
+"No, no one else."
+
+"Will you kindly send for the three servants?"  The magistrate left
+the room.
+
+"Who else lives in the house?"
+
+"The sexton and the dairymaid."
+
+"And no one else has left the house to-day or has entered it?"
+
+"No one.  The main door has been watched all day by a gendarme."
+
+"Is there but one door out of this room?"
+
+"No, there is a small door beside that bookcase."
+
+"Where does it lead to?"
+
+"It leads to a passageway at the end of which there is a stair down
+into the vestry."
+
+Muller gave an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"The vestry as well as the church have neither of them been opened
+on the side toward the street."
+
+"The church or the vestry, you mean," corrected Muller.  "How many
+doors have they on the street side?"
+
+"One each."
+
+"The locks on these doors were in good condition?"
+
+"Yes, they were untouched."
+
+"Was there anything stolen from the church?"
+
+"No, nothing that we could see."
+
+"Was the pastor rich?"
+
+"No, he was almost a poor man, for he gave away all that he had."
+
+"But you were his patron, Count."
+
+"I was his friend.  He was the confidential adviser of myself and
+family."
+
+"This would mean rich presents now and then, would it not?"
+
+"No, that is not the case.  Our venerable pastor would take nothing
+for himself.  He would accept no presents but gifts of money for
+his poor."
+
+"Then you do not believe this to have been a murder for the sake
+of robbery?"
+
+"No.  There was nothing disturbed in any part of the house, no
+drawers or cupboards broken open at all."
+
+Muller smiled.  "I have heard it said that your romantic Hungarian
+bandits will often be satisfied with the small booty they may find
+in the pocket or on the person of their victim."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Muller.  But that is only when they can find
+nothing else."
+
+"Or perhaps if it is a case of revenge.
+
+"It cannot be revenge in this case!"
+
+"The pastor was greatly loved?"
+
+"He was loved and revered."
+
+"By every one?"
+
+"By every one!" the four men answered at once.
+
+Muller was still a while.  His eyes were veiled and his face
+thoughtful.  Finally he raised his head.  "There has been nothing
+moved or changed in this room?"
+
+"No--neither here nor anywhere else in the house or the church,"
+answered the local magistrate.
+
+"That is good.  Now I would like to question the servants."
+
+Muller had already started for the door, then he turned back into
+the room and pointing toward the second door he asked: "Is that
+door locked?"
+
+"Yes," answered the Count.  "I found it locked when I examined it
+myself a short time ago."
+
+"It was locked on the inside?"
+
+"Yes, locked on the inside."
+
+"Very well.  Then we have nothing more to do here for the time
+being.  Let us go back into the dining-room."
+
+The men returned to the dining-room, Muller last, for he stopped
+to lock the door of the study and put the key in his pocket.  Then
+he began his examination of the servants.
+
+The old housekeeper, who, as usual, was the first to rise in the
+household, had also, as usual, rung the bell to waken the other
+servants.  Then when Liska came downstairs she had sent her up
+to the pastor's room.  His bedroom was to the right of the
+dining-room.  Liska had, as usual, knocked on the door exactly at
+seven o'clock and continued knocking for some few minutes without
+receiving any answer.  Slightly alarmed, the girl had gone back
+and told the housekeeper that the pastor did not answer.
+
+Then the old woman asked the coachman to go up and see if anything
+was the matter with the reverend gentleman.  The man returned in
+a few moments, pale and trembling in every limb and apparently
+struck dumb by fright.  He motioned the women to follow him, and
+all three crept up the stairs.  The coachman led them first to the
+pastor's bed, which was untouched, and then to the pool of blood
+in his study.  The sight of the latter frightened the servants so
+much that they did not notice at first that there was no sign of
+the pastor himself, whom they now knew must have been murdered.
+When they finally came to themselves sufficiently to take some
+action, the man hurried off to call the magistrate, and Liska ran
+to the asylum to fetch the old doctor; the pastor's intimate friend.
+The aged housekeeper, trembling in fear, crept back to her own room
+and sat there waiting the return of the others.
+
+This was the story of the early morning as told by the three
+servants, who had already given their report in much the same words
+to the Count on his arrival and also to the magistrate.  There was
+no reason to doubt the words of either the old housekeeper or of
+Janos, the coachman, who had served for more than twenty years in
+the rectory and whose fidelity was known.  The girl Liska was
+scarcely eighteen, and her round childish face and big eyes dimmed
+with tears, corroborated her story.  When they had told Muller all
+they knew, the detective sat stroking, his chin, and looking
+thoughtfully at the floor.  Then he raised his head and said, in a
+tone of calm friendliness: "Well, good friends, this will do for
+to-night.  Now, if you will kindly give me a bite to eat and a
+glass of some light wine, I'd be very thankful.  I have had no
+food since early this morning."
+
+The housekeeper and the maid disappeared, and Janos went to the
+stable to harness the Count's trap.
+
+The magnate turned to the detective.  "I thank you once more that
+you have come to us.  I appreciate it greatly that a stranger to
+our part of the country, like yourself, should give his time and
+strength to this problem of our obscure little village."
+
+"There is nothing else calling me, sir," answered Muller.  "And the
+Budapest police will explain to headquarters at Vienna if I do not
+return at once."
+
+"Do you understand our tongue sufficiently to deal with these people
+here?"
+
+"Oh, yes; there will be no difficulty about that.  I have hunted
+criminals in Hungary before.  And a case of this kind does not
+usually call for disguises in which any accent would betray one."
+
+"It is a strange profession," said the doctor.
+
+"One gets used to it--like everything else," answered Muller, with
+a gentle smile.  "And now I have to thank you gentlemen for your
+confidence in me."
+
+"Which I know you will justify," said the Count.
+
+Muller shrugged his shoulders: "I haven't felt anything yet--but
+it will come--there's something in the air."
+
+The Count smiled at his manner of expressing himself, but all four
+of the men had already begun to feel sympathy and respect for this
+quiet-mannered little person whose words were so few and whose
+voice was so gentle.  Something in his grey eyes and in the quiet
+determination of his manner made them realise that he had won his
+fame honestly.  With the enthusiasm of his race the Hungarian Count
+pressed the detective's hand in a warm grasp as he said: "I know
+that we can trust in you.  You will avenge the death of my old
+friend and of those others who were killed here.  The doctor and
+the magistrate will tell you about them to-morrow.  We two will go
+home now.  Telegraph us as soon as anything has happened.  Every
+one in the village will be ready to help you and of course you can
+call on me for funds.  Here is something to begin on."  With these
+words the Count laid a silk purse full of gold pieces on the table.
+One more pressure of the hand and he was gone.  The other men also
+left the room, following the Count's lead in a cordial farewell of
+the detective.  They also shared the nobleman's feeling that now
+indeed, with this man to help them, could the cloud of horror that
+had hung over the village for two years, and had culminated in
+the present catastrophe, be lifted.
+
+The excitement of the Count's departure had died away and the steps
+of the other men on their way to the village had faded in the
+distance.  There was nothing now to be heard but the rustling of
+the leaves and the creaking of the boughs as the trees bent before
+the onrush of the wind.  Muller stood alone, with folded arms, in
+the middle of the large room, letting his sharp eyes wander about
+the circle of light thrown by the lamps.  He was glad to be alone
+--for only when he was alone could his brain do its best work.  He
+took up one of the lamps and opened the door to the room in which,
+as far as could be known, the murder had been committed.  He
+walked in carefully and, setting the lamp on the desk, examined the
+articles lying about on it.  There was nothing of importance to be
+found there.  An open Bible and a sheet of paper with notes for the
+day's sermon lay on top of the desk.  In the drawers, none of which
+were locked, were official papers, books, manuscripts of former
+sermons, and a few unimportant personal notes.
+
+The flame of the lamp flickered in the breeze that came from the
+open window.  But Muller did not close the casement.  He wanted to
+leave everything just as he had found it until daylight.  When he
+saw that it was impossible to leave the lamp there he took it up
+again and left the room.
+
+"What is the use of being impatient?" he said to himself.  "If I
+move about in this poor light I will be sure to ruin some possible
+clue.  For there must be some clue left here.  It is impossible for
+even the most practiced criminal not to leave some trace of his
+presence."
+
+The detective returned to the dining-room, locking the study door
+carefully behind him.  The maid and the coachman returned, bringing
+in an abundant supper, and Muller sat down to do justice to the many
+good things on the tray.  When the maid returned to take away the
+dishes she inquired whether she should put the guest chamber in 
+order for the detective.  He told her not to go to any trouble for
+his sake, that he would sleep in the bed in the neighbouring room.
+
+"You going to sleep in there?" said the girl, horrified.
+
+"Yes, my child, and I think I will sleep well to-night.  I feel
+very tired."  Liska carried the things out, shaking her head in
+surprise at this thin little man who did not seem to know what it
+was to be afraid.  Half an hour later the rectory was in darkness.
+Before he retired, Muller had made a careful examination of the
+pastor's bedroom.  Nothing was disturbed anywhere, and it was
+evident that the priest had not made any preparations for the
+night, but was still at work at his desk in the study when death
+overtook him.  When he came to this conclusion, the detective went
+to bed and soon fell asleep.
+
+In his little hut near the asylum gates, shepherd Janci slept as
+sound as usual.  But he was dreaming and he spoke in his sleep.
+There was no one to hear him, for his faithful Margit was snoring
+loudly.  Snatches of sentences and broken words came from Janci's
+lips: "The hand--the big hand--I see it--at his throat--the
+face--the yellow face--it laughs--"
+
+Next morning the children on their way to school crept past the
+rectory with wide eyes and open mouths.  And the grown people
+spoke in lower tones when their work led them past the handsome
+old house.  It had once been their pride, but now it was a place
+of horror to them.  The old housekeeper had succumbed to her
+fright and was very ill.  Liska went about her work silently,
+and the farm servants walked more heavily and chattered less than
+they had before.  The hump-backed sexton, who had not been allowed
+to enter the church and therefore had nothing to do, made an early
+start for the inn, where he spent most of the day telling what
+little he knew to the many who made an excuse to follow him there.
+
+The only calm and undisturbed person in the rectory household was
+Muller.  He had made a thorough examination of the entire scene of
+the murder, but had not found anything at all.  Of one thing alone
+was he certain: the murderer had come through the hidden passageway
+from the church.  There were two reasons to believe this, one of
+which might possibly not be sufficient, but the other was conclusive.
+
+The heavy armchair before the desk, the chair on which the pastor
+was presumably sitting when the murderer entered, was half turned
+around, turned in just such a way as it would have been had the man
+who was sitting there suddenly sprung up in excitement or surprise.
+The chair was pushed back a step from the desk and turned towards
+the entrance to the passageway.  Those who had been in the room
+during the day had reported that they had not touched any one of
+the articles of furniture, therefore the position of the chair was
+the same that had been given it by the man who had sat in it, by
+the murdered pastor himself.
+
+Of course there was always the possibility that some one had moved
+the chair without realising it.  This clue, therefore, could not be
+looked upon as an absolutely certain one had it stood alone.  But
+there was other evidence far more important.  The great pool of
+blood was just half-way between the door of the passage and the
+armchair.  It was here, therefore, that the attack had taken place.
+The pastor could not have turned in this direction in the hope of
+flight, for there was nothing here to give him shelter, no weapon
+that he could grasp, not even a cane.  He must have turned in this
+direction to meet and greet the invader who had entered his room in
+this unusual manner.  Turned to meet him as a brave man would, with
+no other weapon than the sacredness of his calling and his age.
+
+But this had not been enough to protect the venerable priest.  The
+murderer must have made his thrust at once and his victim had sunk
+down dying on the floor of the room in which he had spent so many
+hours of quiet study, in which he had brought comfort and given
+advice to so many anxious hearts; for dying he must have been--it
+would be impossible for a man to lose so much blood and live.
+
+"The struggle," thought the detective, "but was there a struggle?"
+He looked about the room again, but could see nothing that showed
+disorder anywhere in its immaculate neatness.  No, there could have
+been no struggle.  It must have been a quick knife thrust and death
+at once.  "Not a shot?"  No, a shot would have been heard by the
+night watchman walking the streets near the church.  The night was
+quiet, the window open.  Some one in the village would have heard
+the noise of a shot.  And it was not likely that the old housekeeper
+who slept in the room immediately below, slept the light sleep of
+the aged would have failed to have heard the firing of a pistol.
+
+Muller took a chair and sat down directly in front of the pool of
+blood, looking at it carefully.  Suddenly he bowed his head deeper.
+He had caught sight of a fine thread of the red fluid which had
+been drawn out for about a foot or two in the direction towards
+the door to the dining-room.  What did that mean?  Did it mean that
+the murderer went out through that door, dragging something after
+him that made this delicate line?  Muller bent down still deeper.
+The sun shone brightly on the floor, sending its clear rays
+obliquely through the window.  The sharp eyes which now covered
+every inch of the yellow-painted floor discovered something else.
+They discovered that this red thread curved slightly and had a
+continuation in a fine scratch in the paint of the floor.  Muller
+followed up this scratch and it led him over towards the window and
+then back again in wide curves, then out again under the desk and
+finally, growing weaker and weaker, it came back to the neighbourhood
+of the pool of blood, but on the opposite side of it.  Muller got
+down on his hands and knees to follow up the scratch.  He did not
+notice the discomfort of his position, his eyes shone in excitement
+and a deep flush glowed in his cheeks.  Also, he began to whistle
+softly.
+
+Joseph Muller, the bloodhound of the Austrian police, had found a
+clue, a clue that soon would bring him to the trail he was seeking.
+He did not know yet what he could do with his clue.  But this much
+he knew; sooner or later this scratch in the floor would lead him
+to the murderer.  The trail might be long and devious; but he would
+follow it and at its end would be success.  He knew that this scratch
+had been made after the murder was committed; this was proved by the
+blood that marked its beginning.  And it could not have been made by
+any of those who entered the room during the day because by that
+time the blood had dried.  This strange streak in the floor, with
+its weird curves and spirals, could have been made only by the
+murderer.  But how?  With what instrument?  There was the riddle
+which must be solved.
+
+And now Muller, making another careful examination of the floor,
+found something else.  It was something that might be utterly
+unimportant or might be of great value.  It was a tiny bit of
+hardened lacquer which he found on the floor beside one of the legs
+of the desk.  It was rounded out, with sharp edges, and coloured
+grey with a tiny zigzag of yellow on its surface.  Muller lifted it
+carefully and looked at it keenly.  This tiny bit of lacquer had
+evidently been knocked off from some convex object, but it was
+impossible to tell at the moment just what sort of an object it
+might have been.  There are so many different things which are
+customarily covered with lacquer.  However, further examination
+brought him down to a narrower range of subjects.  For on the inside
+of the lacquer he found a shred of reddish wood fibre.  It must have
+been a wooden object, therefore, from which the lacquer came, and
+the wood had been of reddish tinge.
+
+Muller pondered the matter for a little while longer.  Then he
+placed his discovery carefully in the pastor's emptied tobacco-box,
+and dropped the box in his own pocket.  He closed the window and the
+door to the dining-room, lit a lamp, and entered the passageway
+leading to the vestry.  It was a short passageway, scarcely more
+than a dozen paces long.
+
+The walls were whitewashed, the floor tiled and the entire passage
+shone in neatness.  Muller held the light of his lamp to every inch
+of it, but there was nothing to show that the criminal had gone
+through here with the body of his victim.
+
+"The criminal"--Muller still thought of only one.  His long
+experience had taught him that the most intricate crimes were
+usually committed by one man only.  The strength necessary for such
+a crime as this did not deceive him either.  He knew that in
+extraordinary moments extraordinary strength will come to the one
+who needs it.
+
+He now passed down the steps leading into the vestry.  There was no
+trace of any kind here either.  The door into the vestry was not
+locked.  It was seldom locked, they had told him, for the vestry
+itself was closed by a huge carved portal with a heavy ornamented
+iron lock that could be opened only with the greatest noise and
+trouble.  This door was locked and closed as it had been since
+yesterday morning.  Everything in the vestry was in perfect order;
+the priest's garments and the censers all in their places.  Muller
+assured himself of this before he left the little room.  He then
+opened the glass door that led down by a few steps into the church.
+
+It was a beautiful old church, and it was a rich church also.  It
+was built in the older Gothic style, and its heavy, broad-arched
+walls, its massive columns would have made it look cold and bare
+had not handsome tapestries, the gift of the lady of the manor,
+covered the walls.  Fine old pictures hung here and there above the
+altars, and handsome stained glass windows broke the light that fell
+into the high vaulted interior.  There were three great altars in
+the church, all of them richly decorated.  The main altar stood
+isolated in the choir.  In the open space behind it was the
+entrance to the crypt, now veiled in a mysterious twilight.  Heavy
+silver candlesticks, three on a side, stood on the altar.  The pale
+gold of the tabernacle door gleamed between them.
+
+Muller walked through the silent church, in which even his light
+steps resounded uncannily.  He looked into each of the pews, into
+the confessionals, he walked around all the columns, he climbed up
+into the pulpit, he did everything that the others had done before
+him yesterday.  And as with them, he found nothing that would
+indicate that the murderer had spent any time in the church.
+Finally he turned back once more to the main altar on his way out.
+But he did not leave the church as he intended.  His last look at
+the altar had showed him something that attracted his attention and
+he walked up the three steps to examine it more closely.
+
+What he had seen was something unusual about one of the silver
+candlesticks.  These candlesticks had three feet, and five of them
+were placed in such a way that the two front feet were turned toward
+the spectator.  But on the end candlestick nearest Muller the single
+foot projected out to the front of the altar.  This candlestick
+therefore had been set down hastily, not placed carefully in the
+order of things as were the others.
+
+And not only this.  The heavy wax candle which was in the candlestick
+was burned down about a finger's breadth more than the others, for
+these were all exactly of a height.  Muller bent still nearer to
+the candlestick, but he saw that the dim light in the church was not
+sufficient.  He went to one of the smaller side altars, took a candle
+from there, lit it with one of the matches that he found in his own
+pocket and returned with the burning candle to the main altar.  The
+steps leading up to this altar were covered by a large rug with a
+white ground and a pattern of flowers.  Looking carefully at it the
+detective saw a tiny brown spot, the mark of a burn, upon one of the
+white surfaces.  Beside it lay a half used match.
+
+Walking around this carefully, Muller approached the candlestick
+that interested him and holding up his light he examined every inch
+of its surface.  He found what he was looking for.  There were dark
+red spots between the rough edges of the silver ornamentation.
+
+"Then the body is somewhere around here," thought the detective and
+came down from the steps, still holding the burning candle.
+
+He walked slowly to the back of the altar.  There was a little table
+there such as held the sacred dishes for the communion service, and
+the little carpet-covered steps which the sexton put out for the
+pastor when he took the monstrance from the high-built tabernacle.
+That was all that was to be seen in the dark corner behind the altar.
+Holding his candle close to the floor Muller discovered an iron ring
+fastened to one of the big stone flags.  This must be the entrance
+to the crypt.
+
+Muller tried to raise the flag and was astonished to find how easily
+it came up.  It was a square of reddish marble, the same with which
+the entire floor of the church was tiled.  This flag was very thin
+and could easily be raised and placed back against the wall.  Muller
+took up his candle, too greatly excited to stop to get a stick for
+it.  He felt assured that now he would soon be able to solve at
+least a part of the mystery.  He climbed down the steps carefully
+and found that they led into the crypt as he supposed.  They were
+kept spotlessly clean, as was the entire crypt as far as he could
+see it by the light of his flickering candle.  He was not surprised
+to discover that the air was perfectly pure here.  There must be
+windows or ventilators somewhere, this he knew from the way his
+candle behaved.
+
+The ancient vault had a high arched ceiling and heavy massive
+pillars.  It was a subterranean repetition of the church above.
+There had evidently been a convent attached to this church at one
+time; for here stood a row of simple wooden coffins all exactly
+alike, bearing each one upon its lid a roughly painted cross
+surrounded by a wreath.  Thus were buried the monks of days long past.
+
+Muller walked slowly through the rows of coffins looking eagerly to
+each side.  Suddenly he stopped and stood still.  His hand did not
+tremble but his thin face was pale--pale as that face which looked
+up at him out of one of the coffins.  The lid of the coffin stood
+up against the wall and Muller saw that there were several other
+empty ones further on, waiting for their silent occupants.
+
+The body in the open coffin before which Muller stood was the body
+of the man who had been missing since the day previous.  He lay
+there quite peacefully, his hands crossed over his breast, his eyes
+closed, a line of pain about his lips.  In the crossed fingers was
+a little bunch of dark yellow roses.  At the first glance one might
+almost have thought that loving hands had laid the old pastor in his
+coffin.  But the red stain on the white cloth about his throat, and
+the bloody disorder of his snow-white hair contrasted sadly with the
+look of peace on the dead face.  Under his head was a white silk
+cushion, one of the cushions from the altar.
+
+Muller stood looking down for some time at this poor victim of a
+strange crime, then he turned to go.
+
+He wanted to know one thing more: how the murderer had left the
+crypt.  The flame of his candle told him, for it nearly went out
+in a gust of wind that came down the opening right above him.  This
+was a window about three or four feet from the floor, protected by
+rusty iron bars which had been sawed through, leaving the opening
+free.  It was a small window, but it was large enough to allow a man
+of much greater size than Muller to pass through it.  The detective
+blew out his candle and climbed up onto the window sill.  He found
+himself outside, in a corner of the churchyard.  A thicket of heavy
+bushes grown up over neglected graves completely hid the opening
+through which he had come.  There were thorns on these bushes and
+also a few scattered roses, dark yellow roses.
+
+Muller walked thoughtfully through the churchyard.  The sexton sat
+huddled in an unhappy heap at the gate.  He looked up in alarm as he
+saw the detective walking towards him.  Something in the stranger's
+face told the little hunchback that he had made a discovery.  The
+sexton sprang up, his lips did not dare utter the question that his
+eyes asked.
+
+"I have found him," said the detective gravely.
+
+The hunchback sexton staggered, then recovered himself, and hurried
+away to fetch the magistrate and the doctor.
+
+An hour later the murdered pastor lay in state in the chief apartment
+of his home, surrounded by burning candles and high-heaped masses of
+flowers.  But he still lay in the simple convent coffin and the little
+bunch of roses which his murderer had placed between his stiffening
+fingers had not been touched.
+
+Two days later the pastor was buried.  The Count and his family led
+the train of numerous mourners and among the last was Muller.
+
+A day or two after the funeral the detective sauntered slowly through
+the main street of the village.  He was not in a very good humour,
+his answer to the greeting of those who passed him was short.  The
+children avoided him, for with the keenness of their kind they
+recognised the fact that this usually gentle little man was not in
+possession of his habitual calm temper.  One group of boys, playing
+with a top, did not notice his coming and Muller stopped behind
+them to look on.  Suddenly a sharp whistle was heard and the boys
+looked up from their play, surprised at seeing the stranger behind
+them.  His eyes were gleaming, and his cheeks were flushed, and a
+few bars of a merry tune came in a keen whistle from his lips as
+he watched the spirals made by the spinning top.
+
+Before the boys could stop their play the detective had left the
+group and hastened onward to the little shop.  He left it again
+in eager haste after having made his purchase, and hurried back to
+the rectory.  The shop-keeper stood in the doorway looking in
+surprise at this grown man who came to buy a top.  And at home in
+the rectory the old housekeeper listened in equal surprise to the
+humming noise over her head.  She thought at first it might be a
+bee that had got in somehow.  Then she realised that it was not
+quite the same noise, and having already concluded that it was of
+no use to be surprised at anything this strange guest might do, she
+continued reading her scriptures.
+
+Upstairs in the pastor's study, Muller sat in the armchair
+attentively watching the gyrations of a spinning top.  The little
+toy, started at a certain point, drew a line exactly parallel to
+the scratch on the floor that had excited his thoughts and absorbed
+them day and night.
+
+"It was a top--a top" repeated the detective to himself again and
+again.  "I don't see why I didn't think of that right away.  Why,
+of course, nothing else could have drawn such a perfect curve around
+the room, unhindered by the legs of the desk.  Only I don't see how
+a toy like that could have any connection with this cruel and
+purposeless murder.  Why, only a fool--or a madman--"
+
+Muller sprang up from his chair and again a sharp shrill whistle
+came from his lips.  "A madman!--" he repeated, beating his own
+forehead.  "It could only have been a madman who committed this
+murder!  And the pastor was not the first, there were two other
+murders here within a comparatively short time.  I think I will take
+advantage of Dr. Orszay's invitation."
+
+Half an hour later Muller and the doctor sat together in a
+summer-house, from the windows of which one could see the park
+surrounding the asylum to almost its entire extent.  The park was
+arranged with due regard to its purpose.  The eye could sweep
+through it unhindered.  There were no bushes except immediately
+along the high wall.  Otherwise there were beautiful lawns, flower
+beds and groups of fine old trees with tall trunks.
+
+As would be natural in visiting such a place Muller had induced the
+doctor to talk about his patients.  Dr. Orszay was an excellent
+talker and possessed the power of painting a personality for his
+listeners.  He was pleased and flattered by the evident interest
+with which the detective listened to his remarks.
+
+"Then your patients are all quite harmless?" asked Muller
+thoughtfully, when the doctor came to a pause.
+
+"Yes, all quite harmless.  Of course, there is the man who strangely
+enough considers himself the reincarnation of the famous French
+murderer, the goldsmith Cardillac, who, as you remember, kept all
+Paris in a fervour of excitement by his crimes during the reign of
+Louis XIV.  But in spite of his weird mania this man is the most
+good-natured of any.  He has been shut up in his room for several
+days now.  He was a mechanician by trade, living in Budapest, and
+an unsuccessful invention turned his mind."
+
+"Is he a large, powerful man?" asked Muller.
+
+Dr. Orszay looked a bit surprised.  "Why do you ask that?  He does
+happen to be a large man of considerable strength, but in spite of
+it I have no fear of him.  I have an attendant who is invaluable to
+me, a man of such strength that even the fiercest of them cannot
+overcome him, and yet with a mind and a personal magnetism which
+they cannot resist.  He can always master our patients mentally and
+physically--most of them are afraid of him and they know that they
+must do as he says.  There is something in his very glance which
+has the power to paralyse even healthy nerves, for it shows the
+strength of will possessed by this man."
+
+"And what is the name of this invaluable attendant?" asked Muller
+with a strange smile which the doctor took to be slightly ironical.
+
+"Gyuri Kovacz.  You are amused at my enthusiasm?  But consider my
+position here.  I am an old man and have never been a strong man.
+At my age I would not have strength enough to force that little
+woman there--she thinks herself possessed and is quite cranky at
+times--to go to her own room when she doesn't want to.  And do you
+see that man over there in the blue blouse?  He is an excellent
+gardener but he believes himself to be Napoleon, and when he has
+his acute attacks I would be helpless to control him were it not
+for Gyuri."
+
+"And you are not afraid of Cardillac?" interrupted Muller.
+
+"Not in the least.  He is as good-natured as a child and as
+confiding.  I can let him walk around here as much as he likes.  If
+it were not for the absurd nonsense that he talks when he has one
+of his attacks, and which frightens those who do not understand him,
+I could let him go free altogether."
+
+"Then you never let him leave the asylum grounds?
+
+"Oh, yes.  I take him out with me very frequently.  He is a man of
+considerable education and a very clever talker.  It is quite a
+pleasure to be with him.  That was the opinion of my poor friend
+also, my poor murdered friend."
+
+"The pastor?"
+
+"The pastor.  He often invited Cardillac to come to the rectory
+with me."
+
+"Indeed.  Then Cardillac knew the inside of the rectory?"
+
+"Yes.  The pastor used to lend him books and let him choose them
+himself from the library shelves.  The people in the village are
+very kind to my poor patients here.  I have long since had the
+habit of taking some of the quieter ones with me down into the
+village and letting the people become acquainted with them.  It is
+good for both parties.  It gives the patients some little diversion,
+and it takes away the worst of the senseless fear these peasants
+had at first of the asylum and its inmates.  Cardillac in particular
+is always welcome when he comes, for he brings the children all
+sorts of toys that he makes in his cell."
+
+The detective had listened attentively and once his eyes flashed
+and his lips shut tight as if to keep in the betraying whistle.
+Then he asked calmly: "But the patients are only allowed to go out
+when you accompany them, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, no; the attendants take them out sometimes.  I prefer, however,
+to let them go only with Gyuri, for I can depend upon him more than
+upon any of the others."
+
+"Then he and Cardillac have been out together occasionally?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite frequently.  But--pardon me--this is almost like
+a cross-examination."
+
+"I beg your pardon, doctor, it's a bad habit of mine.  One gets so
+accustomed to it in my profession."
+
+"What is it you want?" asked Doctor Orszay, turning to a
+fine-looking young man of superb build, who entered just then and
+stood by the door.
+
+"I just wanted to announce, sir, that No. 302 is quiet again!
+
+"302 is Cardillac himself, Mr. Muller, or to give him his right
+name, Lajos Varna," explained the doctor turning to his guest.  "He
+is the 302nd patient who has been received here in these twenty
+years.  Then Cardillac is quiet again?" he asked, looking up at the
+young giant.  "I am glad of that.  You can announce our visit to
+him.  This gentleman wants to inspect the asylum."
+
+Muller realised that this was the attendant Gyuri, and he looked at
+him attentively.  He was soon clear in his own mind that this
+remarkably handsome man did not please him, in fact awoke in him a
+feeling of repulsion.  The attendant's quiet, almost cat-like
+movements were in strange contrast to the massivity of his superb
+frame, and his large round eyes, shaped for open, honest glances,
+were shifty and cunning.  They seemed to be asking "Are you trying
+to discover anything about me?" coupled with a threat. "For your own
+sake you had better not do it."
+
+When the young man had left the room Muller rose hastily and walked
+up and down several times.  His face was flushed and his lips tight
+set.  Suddenly he exclaimed: "I do not like this Gyuri."
+
+Dr. Orszay looked up astonished.  "There are many others who do not
+like him--most of his fellow-warders for instance, and all of the
+patients.  I think there must be something in the contrast of such
+quiet movements with such a big body that gets on people's nerves.
+But consider, Mr. Muller, that the man's work would naturally make
+him a little different from other people.  I have known Gyuri for
+five years as a faithful and unassuming servant, always willing and
+ready for any duty, however difficult or dangerous.  He has but one
+fault--if I may call it such--that is that he has a mistress who
+is known to be mercenary and hard-hearted.  She lives in a
+neighbouring village."
+
+"For five years, you say?  And how long has Cardillac been here?"
+
+"Cardillac?  He has been here for almost three years."
+
+"For almost three years, and is it not almost three years--"
+Muller interrupted himself.  "Are we quite alone?  Is no one
+listening?" The doctor nodded, greatly surprised, and the detective
+continued almost in a whisper, "and it is just about three years now
+that there have been committed, at intervals, three terrible crimes
+notable from the cleverness with which they were carried out, and
+from the utter impossibility, apparently, of discovering the
+perpetrator."
+
+Orszay sprang up.  His face flushed and then grew livid, and he put
+his hand to his forehead.  Then he forced a smile and said in a
+voice that trembled in spite of himself: "Mr. Muller, your
+imagination is wonderful.  And which of these two do you think it is
+that has committed these crimes--the perpetrator of which you have
+come here to find?"
+
+"I will tell you that later.  I must speak to No. 302 first, and I
+must speak to him in the presence of yourself and Gyuri."
+
+The detective's deep gravity was contagious.  Dr. Orszay had
+sufficiently controlled himself to remember what he had heard in
+former days, and just now recently from the district judge about
+this man's marvelous deeds.  He realised that when Muller said
+a thing, no matter how extravagant it might sound, it was worth
+taking seriously.  This realisation brought great uneasiness and
+grief to the doctor's heart, for he had grown fond of both of the
+men on whom terrible suspicion was cast by such an authority.
+
+Muller himself was uneasy, but the gloom that had hung over him for
+the past day or two had vanished.  The impenetrable darkness that
+had surrounded the mystery of the pastor's murder had gotten on his
+nerves.  He was not accustomed to work so long over a problem without
+getting some light on it.  But now, since the chance watching of the
+spinning top in the street had given him his first inkling of the
+trail, he was following it up to a clear issue.  The eagerness, the
+blissful vibrating of every nerve that he always felt at this stage
+of the game, was on him again.  He knew that from now on what was
+still to be done would be easy.  Hitherto his mind had been made up
+on one point; that one man alone was concerned in the crime.  Now he
+understood the possibility that there might have been two, the
+harmless mechanician who fancied himself a dangerous murderer, and
+the handsome young giant with the evil eyes.
+
+The two men stood looking at each other in a silence that was almost
+hostile.  Had this stranger come to disturb the peace of the refuge
+for the unfortunate and to prove that Dr. Orszay, the friend of all
+the village, had unwittingly been giving shelter to such criminals?
+
+"Shall we go now?" asked the detective finally.
+
+"If you wish it, sir," answered the doctor in a tone that was
+decidedly cool.
+
+Muller held out his hand.  "Don't let us be foolish, doctor.  If
+you should find yourself terribly deceived, and I should have been
+the means of proving it, promise me that you will not be angry with
+me."
+
+Orszay pressed the offered hand with a deep sigh.  He realised the
+other's position and knew it was his duty to give him every possible
+assistance.  "What is there for me to do now?" he asked sadly.
+
+"You must see that all the patients are shut up in their cells so
+that the other attendants are at our disposal if we need them.
+Varna's room has barred windows, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I suppose also that it has but one door.  I believe you told
+me that your asylum was built on the cell system." 
+
+"Yes, there is but one door to the room."
+
+"Let the four other attendants stand outside this door.  Gyuri will
+be inside with us.  Tell the men outside that they are to seize and
+hold whomever I shall designate to them.  I will call them in by a
+whistle.  You can trust your people?"
+
+"Yes, I think I can."
+
+"Well, I have my revolver," said Muller calmly, "and now we can go."
+
+They left the room together, and found Gyuri waiting for them a
+little further along the corridor.  "Aren't you well, sir?" the
+attendant asked the doctor, with an anxious note in his voice.
+
+The man's anxiety was not feigned.  He was really a faithful servant
+in his devotion to the old doctor, although Muller had not misjudged
+him when he decided that this young giant was capable of anything.
+Good and evil often lie so close together in the human heart.
+
+The doctor's emotion prevented him from speaking, and the detective
+answered in his place.  "It is a sudden indisposition," he said.
+"Lead me to No. 302, who is waiting for us, I suppose.  The doctor
+wants to lie down a moment in his own room."
+
+Gyuri glanced distrustfully at this man whom he had met for the
+first time to-day, but who was no stranger to him--for he had
+already learned the identity of the guest in the rectory.  Then
+he turned his eyes on his master.  The latter nodded and said:
+"Take the gentleman to Varna's room.  I will follow shortly."
+
+The cell to which they went was the first one at the head of the
+staircase.  "Extremely convenient," thought Muller to himself.  It
+was a large room, comfortably furnished and filled now with the red
+glow of the setting sun.  A turning-lathe stood by the window and
+an elderly man was at work at it.  Gyuri called to him and he turned
+and rose when he saw a stranger.
+
+Lajos Varna was a tall, loose-jointed man with sallow skin and
+tired eyes.  He gave only a hasty glance at his visitor, then looked
+at Gyuri.  The expression in his eyes as he turned them on those of
+the warder was like the look in the eyes of a well-trained dog when
+it watches its master's face.  Gyuri's brows were drawn close
+together and his mouth set tight to a narrow line.  His eyes fairly
+bored themselves into the patient's eyes with an expression like
+that of a hypnotiser.
+
+Muller knew now what he wanted to know.  This young man understood
+how to bend the will of others, even the will of a sick mind, to
+his own desires.  The little silent scene he had watched had lasted
+just the length of time it had taken the detective to walk through
+the room and hold out his hand to the patient.
+
+"I don't want to disturb you, Mr. Varna," he said in a friendly
+tone, with a motion towards the bench from which the mechanician
+had just arisen.  Varna sat down again, obedient as a child.  He
+was not always so apparently, for Muller saw a red mark over the
+fingers of one hand that was evidently the mark of a blow.  Gyuri
+was not very choice in the methods by which he controlled the
+patients confided to his care.
+
+"May I sit down also?" asked Muller.
+
+Varna pushed forward a chair.  His movements were like those of
+an automaton.
+
+"And now tell me how you like it here?" began the detective.  Varna
+answered with a low soft voice, "Oh, I like it very much, sir."
+As he spoke he looked up at Gyuri, whose eyes still bore their
+commanding expression.
+
+"They treat you kindly here?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"The doctor is very good to you?"
+
+"Ah, the doctor is so good!"  Varna's dull eyes brightened.
+
+"And the others are good to you also?"
+
+"Oh, yes."  The momentary gleam in the sad had vanished again.
+
+"Where did you get this red scar?"
+
+The patient became uneasy, he moved anxiously on his chair and
+looked up at Gyuri.  It was evident that he realised there would be
+more red marks if he told the truth to this stranger.
+
+Muller did not insist upon an answer.  "You are uneasy and nervous
+sometimes, aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I have been--nervous--lately."
+
+"And they don't let you go out at such times?"
+
+"Why, I--no, I may not go out at such times."
+
+"But the doctor takes you with him sometimes--the doctor or Gyuri?"
+asked the detective.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I haven't had him out with me for weeks," interrupted the attendant.
+He seemed particularly anxious to have the "for weeks" clearly heard
+by this inconvenient questioner.
+
+Muller dropped this subject and took up another.  "They tell me you
+are very fond of children, and I can see that you are making toys for
+them here."
+
+"Yes, I love children, and I am so glad they are not afraid of me."
+These words were spoken with more warmth and greater interest than
+anything the man had yet said.
+
+"And they tell me that you take gifts with you for the children
+every time you go down to the village.  This is pretty work here,
+and it must be a pleasant diversion for you."  Muller had taken up
+a dainty little spinning-wheel which was almost completed.  "Isn't
+it made from the wood of a red yew tree?"
+
+"Yes, the doctor gave me a whole tree that had been cut down in the
+park."
+
+"And that gave you wood for a long time?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; I have been making toys from it for months."  Varna
+had become quite eager and interested as he handed his visitor a
+number of pretty trifles.  The two had risen from their chairs and
+were leaning over the wide window seat which served as a store-house
+for the wares turned out by the busy workman.  They were toys,
+mostly, all sorts of little pots and plates, dolls' furniture, balls
+of various sizes, miniature bowling pins, and tops.  Muller took up
+one of the latter.
+
+"How very clever you are, and how industrious," he exclaimed,
+sitting down again and turning the top in his hands.  It was covered
+with gray varnish with tiny little yellow stripes painted on it.
+Towards the lower point a little bit of the varnish had been broken
+off and the reddish wood underneath was visible.  The top was much
+better constructed than the cheap toys sold in the village.  It was
+hollow and contained in its interior a mechanism started by a
+pressure on the upper end.  Once set in motion the little top spun
+about the room for some time.
+
+"Oh, isn't that pretty!  Is this mechanism your own invention?"
+asked Muller smiling.  Gyuri watched the top with drawn brows and
+murmured something about "childish foolishness."
+
+"Yes, it is my own invention," said the patient, flattered.  He
+started out on an absolutely technical explanation of the mechanism
+of tops in general and of his own in particular, an explanation so
+lucid and so well put that no one would have believed the man
+who was speaking was not in possession of the full powers of his
+mind.
+
+Muller listened very attentively with unfeigned interest.
+
+"But you have made more important inventions than this, haven't
+you?" he asked when the other stopped talking.  Varna's eyes flashed
+and his voice dropped to a tone of mystery as he answered: "Yes
+indeed I have.  But I did not have time to finish them.  For I had
+become some one else."
+
+"Some one else?"
+
+"Cardillac," whispered Varna, whose mania was now getting the best
+of him again.
+
+"Cardillac?  You mean the notorious goldsmith who lived in Paris
+200 years ago?  Why, he's dead."
+
+Varna's pale lips curled in a superior smile.  "Oh, yes--that's
+what people think, but it's a mistake.  He is still alive--I am
+--I have--although of course there isn't much opportunity here--"
+
+Gyuri cleared his throat with a rasping noise.
+
+"What were you saying, friend Cardillac?" asked Muller with a great
+show of interest.
+
+"I have done things here that nobody has found out.  It gives me
+great pleasure to see the authorities so helpless over the riddles
+I have given them to solve.  Oh, indeed, sir, you would never
+imagine how stupid they are here."
+
+"In other words, friend Cardillac, you are too clever for the
+authorities here?
+
+"Yes, that's it," said the insane man greatly flattered.  He raised
+his head proudly and smiled down at his guest.  At this moment the
+doctor came into the room and Gyuri walked forward to the group at
+the window.
+
+"You are making him nervous, sir," he said to Muller in a tone that
+was almost harsh.
+
+"You can leave that to me," answered the detective calmly.  "And
+you will please place yourself behind Mr. Varna's chair, not behind
+mine.  It is your eyes that are making him uneasy."
+
+The attendant was alarmed and lost control of himself for a moment.
+"Sir!" he exclaimed in an outburst.
+
+"My name is Muller, in case you do not know it already, Joseph
+Muller, detective.  Gyuri Kovacz, you will do what I tell you to!
+I am master here just now.  Is it not so, doctor?"
+
+"Yes, it is so," said the doctor.
+
+"What does this mean?" murmured Gyuri, turning pale.
+
+"It means that the best thing for you to do is to stand up against
+that wall and fold your arms on your breast," said Muller firmly.
+He took a revolver from his pocket and laid it beside him on the
+turning-lathe.  The young giant, cowed by the sight of the weapon,
+obeyed the commands of this little man whom he could have easily
+crushed with a single blow.
+
+Dr. Orszay sank down on the chair beside the door.  Muller, now
+completely master of the situation, turned to the insane man who
+stood looking at him in a surprise which was mingled with admiration.
+
+"And now, my dear Cardillac, you must tell us of your great deeds
+here," said the detective in a friendly tone.
+
+The unfortunate man bent over him with shining eyes and whispered:
+"But you'll shoot him first, won't you?"
+
+"Why should I shoot him?"
+
+"Because he won't let me say a word without beating me.  He is so
+cruel.  He sticks pins into me if I don't do what he wants."
+
+"Why didn't you tell the doctor?"
+
+"Gyuri would have treated me worse than ever then.  I am a coward,
+sir, I'm so afraid of pain and he knew that--he knew that I was
+afraid of being hurt and that I'd always do what he asked of me.
+And because I don't like to be hurt myself I always finished them
+off quickly."
+
+"Finished who?"
+
+"Why, there was Red Betty, he wanted her money."
+
+"Who wanted it?"
+
+"Gyuri."
+
+The man at the wall moved when he heard this terrible accusation.
+But the detective took up his revolver again.  "Be quiet there!" he
+called, with a look such as he might have thrown at an angry dog.
+Gyuri stood quiet again but his eyes shot flames and great drops
+stood out on his forehead.
+
+"Now go on, friend Cardillac," continued the detective.  "We were
+talking about Red Betty."
+
+"I strangled her.  She did not even know she was dying.  She was
+such a weak old woman, it really couldn't have hurt her."
+
+"No, certainly not," said Muller soothingly, for he saw that the
+thought that his victim might have suffered was beginning to make
+the madman uneasy.  "You needn't worry about that.  Old Betty died
+a quiet death.  But tell me, how did Gyuri know that she had money?"
+
+"The whole village knew it.  She laid cards for people and earned
+a lot of money that way.  She was very stingy and saved every bit.
+Somebody saw her counting out her money once, she had it in a big
+stocking under her bed.  People in the village talked about it.
+That's how Gyuri heard of it."
+
+"And so he commanded you to kill Betty and steal her money?"
+
+"Yes.  He knew that I loved to give them riddles to guess, just as
+I did in Paris so long ago."
+
+"Oh, yes, you're Cardillac, aren't you?  And now tell us about the
+smith's swineherd."
+
+"You mean Janos?  Oh, he was a stupid lout," answered Varna
+scornfully.
+
+"He had cast an eye on the beautiful Julcsi, Gyuri's mistress, so
+of course I had to kill him."
+
+"Did you do that alone?"
+
+"No, Gyuri helped me."
+
+"Why did you cut the bridge supports?"
+
+"Because I enjoy giving people riddles, as I told you.  But Gyuri
+forbade me to kill people uselessly.  I liked the chance of getting
+out though.  The doctor's so good to me and the others too.  Gyuri
+is good to me when I have done what he wanted.  But you see, Mr.
+Muller, I am like a prisoner here and that makes me angry.  I made
+Gyuri let me out nights sometimes."
+
+"You mean he let you out alone, all alone?"
+
+"Yes, of course, for I threatened to tell the doctor everything if
+he didn't."
+
+"You wouldn't have dared do that."
+
+"No, that's true," smiled Varna slyly.  "But Gyuri was afraid I
+might do it, for he isn't always strong enough to frighten me with
+his eyes.  Those were the hours when I could make him afraid--I
+liked those hours--"
+
+"What did you do when you were out alone at night?"
+
+"I just walked about.  I set fire to a tree in the woods once, then
+the rain came and put it out.  Once I killed a dog and another time
+I cut through the bridge supports.  That took me several hours to do
+and made me very tired.  But it was such fun to know that people
+would be worrying and fussing about who did it."
+
+Varna rubbed his hands gleefully.  He did not look the least bit
+malicious but only very much amused.  The doctor groaned.  Gyuri's
+great body trembled, his arms shook, but he did not make a single
+voluntary movement.  He saw the revolver in Muller's hand and felt
+the keen grey eyes resting on him in pitiless calm.
+
+"And now tell us about the pastor?" said the detective in a firm
+clear voice.
+
+"Oh, he was a dear, good gentleman," said No. 302 with an expression
+of pitying sorrow on his face.  "I owed him much gratitude; that's
+why I put the roses in his hand."
+
+"Yes, but you murdered him first."
+
+"Of course, Gyuri told me to."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"He hated the pastor, for the old gentleman had no confidence in
+him."
+
+"Is this true?" Muller turned to the doctor.
+
+"I did not notice it," said Orszay with a voice that showed deep
+sorrow.
+
+"And you?" Muller's eyes bored themselves into the orbs of the young
+giant, now dulled with fear.
+
+Gyuri started and shivered.  "He looked at me sharply every now and
+then," he murmured.
+
+"And that was why he was killed?"
+
+The warder's head sank on his breast.
+
+"No, not only for that reason," continued No. 302.  "Gyuri needed
+money again.  He ordered me to bring him the silver candlesticks
+off the altar."
+
+"Murder and sacrilege," said the detective calmly. 
+
+"No, I did not rob the church.  When I had buried the reverend
+gentleman I heard the cock crowing.  I was afraid I might get home
+here too late and I forgot the candlesticks.  I had to stop to wash
+my hands in the brook.  While I was there I saw shepherd Janci coming
+along and I hid behind the willows.  He almost discovered me once,
+but Janci's a dreamer, he sees things nobody else sees--and he doesn't
+see things that everybody else does see.  I couldn't help laughing at
+his sleepy face.  But I didn't laugh when I came back to the asylum.
+Gyuri was waiting for me at the door.  When he saw that I hadn't
+brought the candlesticks he beat me and tortured me worse than he'd
+ever done before."
+
+"And you didn't tell anyone?"
+
+"Why, no; because I was afraid that if I told on him, I'd never be
+able to go out again."
+
+"And you, quite alone, could carry the pastor's body out of his
+room?"
+
+"I am very strong."
+
+"How did you arrange it that there should be no traces of blood to
+betray you?"
+
+"I waited until the body had stiffened, then I tied up the wound and
+carried him down into the crypt."
+
+"Why did you do that?"
+
+"I didn't want to leave him in that horrid pool of blood."
+
+"You were sorry for him then?"
+
+"Why, yes; it looked so horrid to see him lying there--and he had
+always been so good to me.  He was so good to me that very evening
+when I entered his study.
+
+"He recognised you?
+
+"Certainly.  He sprang up from his chair when I came in through the
+passage from the church.  I saw that he was startled, but he smiled
+at me and reached out his hand to me and said: 'What brings you here,
+my dear Cardillac?'  And then I struck.  I wanted him to die with
+that smile on his lips.  It is beautiful to see a man die smiling,
+it shows that he has not been afraid of death.  He was dead at once.
+I always kill that way--I know just how to strike and where.  I
+killed more than a hundred people years ago in Paris, and I didn't
+leave one of them the time for even a sigh.  I was renowned for
+that--I had a kind heart and a sure hand."
+
+Muller interrupted the dreadful imaginings of the madman with a
+question.  "You got into the house through the crypt?"
+
+"Yes, through the crypt.  I found the window one night when I was
+prowling around in the churchyard.  When I knew that the pastor was
+to be the next, I cut through the window bars.  Gyuri went into the
+church one day when nobody was there and found out that it was easy
+to lift the stone over the entrance to the crypt.  He also learned
+that the doors from the church to the vestry were never locked.  I
+knew how to find the passageway, because I had been through it
+several times on my visits to the rectory.  But it was a mere chance
+that the door into the pastor's study was unlocked."
+
+"A chance that cost the life of a worthy man," said the detective
+gravely.
+
+Varna nodded sadly.  "But he didn't suffer, he was dead at once."
+
+"And now tell me what this top was doing there?"  No. 302 looked at
+the detective in great surprise, and then laid his hand on the
+latter's arm.  "How did you know that I had the top there?" he asked
+with a show of interest.
+
+"I found its traces in the room, and it was those traces that led
+me here to you," answered Muller.
+
+"How strange!" remarked Varna.  "Are you like shepherd Janci that
+you can see the things others don't see?"
+
+"No, I have not Janci's gift.  It would be a great comfort to me
+and a help to the others perhaps if I had.  I can only see things
+after they have happened."
+
+"But you can see more than others--the others did not see the
+traces of the top?"
+
+"My business is to see more than others see," said Muller.  "But
+you have not told me yet what the top was doing there.  Why did you
+take a toy like that with you when you went out on such an errand?"
+
+"It was in my pocket by chance.  When I reached for my handkerchief
+to quench the flow of blood the top came out with it.  I must have
+touched the spring without knowing it, for the top began to spin.
+I stood still and watched it, then I ran after it.  It spun around
+the room and finally came back to the body.  So did I.  The pastor
+was quite still and dead by that time."
+
+"You have heard everything, Dr. Orszay?" asked the detective, rising
+from his chair.
+
+"Yes, I have heard everything," answered the venerable head of the
+asylum.  He was utterly crushed by the realisation that all this
+tragedy and horror had gone out from his house.
+
+Varna rose also.  He understood perfectly that now Gyuri's power
+was at an end and he was as pleased as a child that has just
+received a present.  "And now you're going to shoot him?" he asked,
+in the tone a boy would use if asking when the fireworks were to
+begin.
+
+Muller shook his head.  "No, my dear Cardillac," he replied
+gravely.  "He will not be shot--that is a death for a brave
+soldier--but this man has deserved--"  He did not finish the
+sentence, for the warder sank to the floor unconscious.
+
+"What a coward!" murmured the detective scornfully, looking down at
+the giant frame that lay prostrate before him.  Even in his wide
+experience he had known of no case of a man of such strength and
+such bestial cruelty, combined with such utter cowardice.
+
+Varna also stood looking down at the unconscious warder.  Then he
+glanced up with a cunning smile at the other two men who stood
+there.  The doctor, pale and trembling with horror, covered his
+face with his hands.  Muller turned to the door to call in the
+attendants waiting outside.  During the moment's pause that ensued
+the madman bent over his worktable, seized a knife that lay there
+and dropped on one knee beside the prostrate form.  His hand was
+raised to strike when a calm voice said: "Fie!  Cardillac, for
+shame!  Do not belittle yourself.  This man here is not worthy of
+your knife, the hangman will look after him."
+
+Varna raised his loose-jointed frame and looked about with
+glistening eyes and trembling lips.  His mind was completely
+darkened once more.  "I must kill him--I must have his
+blood--there is no one to see me," he murmured.  "I am a
+hangman too--he has made a hangman of me," and again he bent
+with uplifted hand over the man who had utilised his terrible
+misfortune to make a criminal of him.  But two of the waiting
+attendants seized his arms and threw him back on the floor, while
+the other two carted Gyuri out.  Both unfortunates were soon
+securely guarded.
+
+"Do not be angry with me, doctor," said Muller gravely, as he
+walked through the garden accompanied by Orszay.
+
+Doctor Orszay laughed bitterly.  "Why should I be angry with you 
+--you who have discovered my inexcusable credulity?"
+
+"Inexcusable?  Oh, no, doctor; it was quite natural that you should
+have believed a man who had himself so well in hand, and who knew
+so well how to play his part.  When we come to think of it, we
+realise that most crimes have been made possible through some one's
+credulity, or over-confidence, a credulity which, in the light of
+subsequent events, seems quite incomprehensible.  Do not reproach
+yourself and do not lose heart.  Your only fault was that you did
+not recognise the heart of the beast of prey in this admirable human
+form."
+
+"What course will the law take?" asked Orszay.  "The poor
+unfortunate madman--whose knife took all these lives--cannot be
+held responsible, can he?"
+
+"Oh, no; his misfortune protects him.  But as for the other, though
+his hands bear no actual bloodstains, he is more truly a murderer
+than the unhappy man who was his tool.  Hanging is too good for him.
+There are times when even I could wish that we were back in the
+Middle Ages, when it was possible to torture a prisoner.
+
+"You do not look like that sort of a man," smiled the doctor through
+his sadness.
+
+"No, I am the most good-natured of men usually, I think--the
+meekest anyway," answered Muller.  "But a case like this--.  However,
+as I said before, keep a stout heart, doctor, and do not waste
+time in unnecessary self-reproachings."  The detective pressed the
+doctor's hand warmly and walked down the hill towards the village.
+
+He went at once to the office of the magistrate and made his report,
+then returned to the rectory and packed his grip.  He arranged for
+its transport to the railway station, as he himself preferred to
+walk the inconsiderable distance.  He passed through the village
+and had just entered the open fields when he met Janci with his
+flock.  The shepherd hastened his steps when he saw the detective
+approaching.
+
+"You have found him, sir?" he exclaimed as he came up to Muller.
+The men had come to be friends by this time.  The silent shepherd
+with the power of second sight had won Muller's interest at once.
+
+"Yes, I found him.  It is Gyuri, the warder at the asylum."
+
+"No, sir, it is not Gyuri--Gyuri did not do it."
+
+"But when I tell you that he did?"
+
+"But I tell you, sir, that Gyuri did not do it.  The man who did
+it--he has yellowish hands--I saw them--I saw big yellowish
+hands.  Gyuri's hands are big, but they are brown."
+
+"Janci, you are right.  I was only trying to test you.  Gyuri did
+not do it; that is, he did not do it with his own hands.  The man
+who held the knife that struck down the pastor was Varna, the crazy
+mechanician."
+
+Janci beat his forehead.  "Oh, I am a foolish and useless dreamer!"
+he exclaimed; "of course it was Varna's hands that I saw.  I have
+seen them a hundred times when he came down into the village, and
+yet when I saw them in the vision I did not recognise them."
+
+"We're all dreamers, Janci--and our dreams are very useless
+generally."
+
+"Yours are not useless, sir," said the shepherd.  "If I had as much
+brains as you have, my dreams might be of some good."
+
+Muller smiled.  "And if I had your visions, Janci, it would be a
+powerful aid to me in my profession."
+
+"I don't think you need them, sir.  You can find out the hidden
+things without them.  You are going to leave us?"
+
+"Yes, Janci, I must go back to Budapest, and from there to Vienna.
+They need me on another case."
+
+"It's a sad work, this bringing people to the gallows, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Janci, it is sometimes.  But it's a good thing to be able to
+avenge crime and bring justice to the injured.  Good-bye, Janci."
+
+"Good-bye, sir, and God speed you."
+
+The shepherd stood looking after the small, slight figure of the
+man who walked on rapidly through the heather.  "He's the right one
+for the work," murmured Janci as he turned slowly back towards the
+village.
+
+An hour later Muller stood in the little waiting-room of the railway
+station writing a telegram.  It was addressed to Count ----.
+
+  "Do you know the shepherd Janci?  It would be a good thing to
+  make him the official detective for the village.  He has high
+  qualifications for the profession.  If I had his gifts combined
+  with my own, not one could escape me.  I have found this one
+  however.  The guards are already taking him to you.  My work
+  here is done.  If I should be needed again I can be found at
+  Police Headquarters, Vienna.
+                                                  "Respectfully,
+                                                  "JOSEPH MULLER."
+
+While the detective was writing his message--it was one of the rare
+moments of humour that Muller allowed himself, and he wondered
+mildly what the stately Hungarian nobleman would think of it--a
+heavy farm wagon jolted over the country roads towards the little
+county seat.  Sitting beside the driver and riding about the wagon
+were armed peasants.  The figure of a man, securely bound, his face
+distorted by rage and fear, lay in the wagon.  It was Gyuri Kovacz,
+who had murdered by the hands of another, and who was now on his
+way to meet the death that was his due.
+
+And at one of the barred windows in the big yellow house stood a
+sallow-faced man, looking out at the rising moon with sad, tired
+eyes.  His lips were parted in a smile like that of a dreaming
+child, and he hummed a gentle lullaby.
+
+In his compartment of the express from Budapest to Vienna, Joseph
+Muller sat thinking over the strange events that had called him to
+the obscure little Hungarian village.  He had met with many strange
+cases in his long career, but this particular case had some features
+which were unique.  Muller's lips set hard and his hands tightened
+to fists as he murmured: "I've met with criminals who used strange
+tools, but never before have I met with one who had the cunning and
+the incredible cruelty to utilise the mania of an unhinged human
+mind.  It is a thousand times worse than those criminals who, now
+and then throughout the ages, have trained brute beasts to murder
+for them.  Truly, this Hungarian peasant, Gyuri Kovacz, deserves a
+high place in the infamous roll-call of the great criminals of
+history.  A student of crime might almost be led to think that it
+is a pity his career has been cut short so soon.  He might have
+gone far.
+
+"But for humanity's sake" (Muller's eyes gleamed), "I am thankful
+that I was able to discover this beast in human form and render him
+innocuous; he had done quite enough."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext:  The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study
+
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