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<h1> THE CASE OF THE REGISTERED LETTER </h1>
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<h2> By Augusta Groner </h2>
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<h3> Translated by Grace Isabel Colbron </h3>
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<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'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.</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'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'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.</p>
<p>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.</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'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.</p>
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