<p>After leaving the prison, Muller took the train for the village of Grunau,
about half an hour distant from the city. He found his way easily to
Graumann's home, an attractive old house set in a large garden amid groups
of beautiful old trees. When he sent up his card to Miss Graumann, the old
lady tripped down stairs in a flutter of excitement.</p>
<p>"Did you see him?" she asked. "You have been to the prison? What do you
think? How does he seem?"</p>
<p>"He seems calm to-day," replied Muller, "although the confinement and the
anxiety are evidently wearing on him."</p>
<p>"And you heard his story? And you believe him innocent?"</p>
<p>"I am inclined to do so. But there is more yet for me to investigate in
this matter. It is certainly not as simple as the police here seem to
believe. May I speak to your ward, Miss Roemer? She is at home now?"</p>
<p>"Yes, Lora is at home. If you will wait here a moment I will send her in."</p>
<p>Muller paced up and down the large sunny room, casting a glance over the
handsome old pieces of furniture and the family portraits on the wall. It
was evidently the home of generations of well-to-do, well-bred people, the
narrow circle of whose life was made rich by congenial duties and a
comfortable feeling of their standing in the community.</p>
<p>While he was studying one of the portraits more carefully, he became aware
that there was some one in the room. He turned and saw a tall blond girl
standing by the door. She had entered so softly that even Muller's quick
ear had not heard the opening of the door.</p>
<p>"Do you wish to speak to me?" she said, coming down into the room. "I am
Eleonora Roemer"</p>
<p>Her face, which could be called handsome in its even regularity of feature
and delicate skin, was very pale now, and around her eyes were dark rings
that spoke of sleepless nights. Grief and mental shock were preying upon
this girl's mind. "She is not the one to make a confidant of those around
her," thought Muller to himself. Then he added aloud: "If it does not
distress you too much to talk about this sad affair, I will be very
grateful if you will answer a few questions."</p>
<p>"I will tell you whatever I can," said the girl in the same low even tone
in which she had first spoken. "Miss Graumann tells me that you have come
from Vienna to take up this case. It is only natural that we should want
to give you every assistance in our power."</p>
<p>"What is your opinion about it?" was Muller's next remark, made rather
suddenly after a moment's pause.</p>
<p>The directness of the question seemed to shake the girl out of her
enforced calm. A slow flush mounted into her pale cheeks and then died
away, again leaving them whiter than before. "I do not know—oh, I do
not know what to believe."</p>
<p>"But you do not think Mr. Graumann capable of such a crime, do you?"</p>
<p>"Not of the robbery, of course not; that would be absurd! But has it been
clearly proven that there is a robbery? Might it not have been—might
they not have—"</p>
<p>"You mean, might they not have quarreled? Of course there is that
possibility. And that is why I wanted to speak to you. You are the one
person who could possibly throw light on this subject. Was there any other
reason beyond the dead man's past that would render your guardian
unwilling to have you marry him?"</p>
<p>Again the slow flush mounted to Eleonora Roemer's cheeks and her head
drooped.</p>
<p>"I fear it may be painful for you to answer this," said Muller gently,
"and yet I must insist on it in the interest of justice."</p>
<p>"He—my guardian—wished to marry me himself," the girl's words
came slowly and painfully.</p>
<p>Muller drew in his breath so sharply that it was almost like a whistle.
"He did not tell me that; it might make a difference."</p>
<p>"That... that is... what I fear," said the girl, her eyes looking keenly
into those of the man who sat opposite. "And then, it was his revolver."</p>
<p>"Then you do believe him guilty?"</p>
<p>"It would be horrible, horrible—and yet I do not know what to
think."</p>
<p>There was silence in the room for a moment. Miss Roemer's head drooped
again and her hands twisted nervously in her lap. Muller's brain was very
busy with this new phase of the problem. Finally he spoke.</p>
<p>"Let us dismiss this side of the question and talk of another phase of it,
a phase of which it is necessary for me to know something. You would
naturally be the person nearest the dead man, the one, the only one,
perhaps, to whom he had given his confidence. Do you know of any enemies
he might have had in the city?"</p>
<p>"No, I do not know of any enemies, or even of any friends he had there.
When the terrible thing happened that clouded his past, when he had
regained his freedom, after his term of imprisonment, there was no one
left whom he cared to see again. He does not seem to have borne any malice
towards the banker who accused him of the theft. The evidence was so
strong against him that he felt the suspicion was justified. But there was
hatred in his heart for one man, for the Justice who sentenced him,
Justice Schmidt, who is now Attorney General in G—."</p>
<p>"The man who, in the name of the State, will conduct this case?" asked
Muller quickly.</p>
<p>"Yes, I believe it is so. Is it not an irony that this man, the only one
whom John really hated, should be the one to avenge him now?"</p>
<p>"H'm! yes. But did you know of any friends in G—?"</p>
<p>"No, none at all."</p>
<p>"No friends whom he might have made while he was in America and then met
again in Germany?"</p>
<p>"No, he never spoke of any such to me. He told me that he made few
friends. He did not seek them for he was afraid that they might find out
what had happened and turn from him. He was morbidly sensitive and could
not bear the disappointment."</p>
<p>"Why did he return to Germany?"</p>
<p>"He was lonely and wanted to come home again. He had made money in America—John
was very clever and highly educated—but his heart longed for his own
tongue and his own people."</p>
<p>Muller took a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "Do you know this
handwriting?"</p>
<p>Miss Roemer read the few lines hastily and her voice trembled as she said:
"This is John's handwriting. I know it well. This is the letter that was
found on the table?"</p>
<p>"Yes, this letter appears to be the last he had written in life. Do you
know to whom it could have been written? The envelope, as I suppose you
know from the newspaper reports, was not addressed. Do you know of any
friends with whom he could have been on terms of sufficient intimacy to
write such a letter? Do you know what these plans for the future could
have been? It would certainly be natural that he should have spoken to you
first about them."</p>
<p>"No; I cannot understand this letter at all," replied the girl. "I have
thought of it frequently these terrible days. I have wondered why it was
that if he had friends in the city, he did not speak to me of them. He
repeatedly told me that he had no friends there at all, that his life
should begin anew after we were married."</p>
<p>"And did he have any particular plans, in a business way, perhaps?"</p>
<p>"No; he had a comfortable little income and need have no fear for the
future. John was, of course, too young a man to settle down and do
nothing. But the only definite plans he had made were that we should
travel a little at first, and then he would look about him for a congenial
occupation. I always thought it likely he would resume a law practice
somewhere. I cannot understand in the slightest what the plans are to
which the letter referred."</p>
<p>"And do you think, from what you know of his state of mind when you saw
him last, that he would be likely so soon to be planning pleasures like
this?"</p>
<p>"No, no indeed! John was terribly crushed when my guardian insisted on
breaking off our engagement. Until my twenty-fourth birthday I am still
bound to do as my guardian says, you know. John's life and early
misfortune made him, as I have already said, morbidly sensitive and the
thought that it would be a bar to anything we might plan in the future,
had rendered him so depressed that—and it was not the least of my
anxieties and my troubles—that I feared... I feared anything might
happen."</p>
<p>"You feared he might take his own life, do you mean?"</p>
<p>"Yes, yes, that is what I feared. But is it not terrible to think that he
should have died this way—by the hand of a murderer?"</p>
<p>"H'm! And you cannot remember any possible friend he may have found—some
schoolboy friend of his youth, perhaps, with whom he had again struck up
an acquaintance."</p>
<p>"Oh, no, no, I am positive of that. John could not bear to hear the names
even of the people he had known before his misfortune. Still, I do
remember his once having spoken of a man, a German he had met in Chicago
and rather taken a fancy to, and who had also returned to Germany."</p>
<p>"Could this possibly have been the man to whom the letter is addressed?"</p>
<p>"No, no. This friend of John's was not married; I remember his saying
that. And he lived in Germany somewhere—let me think—yes, in
Frankfort-on-Main."</p>
<p>"And do you remember the man's name?"</p>
<p>"No, I cannot, I am sorry to say. John only mentioned it once. It was only
by a great effort that I could remember the incident at all."</p>
<p>"And has it not struck you as rather peculiar that this friend, the one to
whom the cordial letter was addressed, did not come forward and make his
identity known? G—— is a city, it is true, but it is not a
very large city, and any man being on terms of intimate acquaintance with
one who was murdered would be apt to come forward in the hope of throwing
some light on the mystery."</p>
<p>"Why, yes, I had not thought of that. It is peculiar, is it not? But some
people are so foolishly afraid of having anything to do with the police,
you know."</p>
<p>"That is very true, Miss Roemer. Still it is a queer incident and
something that I must look into."</p>
<p>"What do you believe?" asked the girl tensely.</p>
<p>"I am not in a position to say as yet. When I am, I will come to you and
tell you."</p>
<p>"Then you do not think that my guardian killed John—that there was a
quarrel between the men?"</p>
<p>"There is, of course, a possibility that it may have been so. You know
your guardian better than I do, naturally. Our knowledge of a man's
character is often a far better guide than any circumstantial evidence."</p>
<p>"My guardian is a man of the greatest uprightness of character. But he can
be very hard and pitiless sometimes. And he has a violent temper which his
weak heart has forced him to keep in control of late years."</p>
<p>"All this speaks for the possibility that there may have been a quarrel
ending in the fatal shot. But what I want to know from you is this—do
you think it possible, that, this having happened, Albert Graumann would
not have been the first to confess his unpremeditated crime? Is not this
the most likely thing for a man of his character to do? Would he so
stubbornly deny it, if it had happened?"</p>
<p>The girl started. "I had not thought of that! Why, why, of course, he
might have killed John in a moment of temper, but he was never a man to
conceal a fault. He is as pitiless towards his own weakness, as towards
that of others. You are right, oh, you must be right. Oh, if you could
take this awful fear from my heart! Even my grief for John would be easier
to bear then."</p>
<p>Muller rose from his chair. "I think I can promise you that this load will
be lifted from your heart, Miss Roemer."</p>
<p>"Then you believe—that it was just a case of murder for robbery? For
the money? And John had some valuable jewelry, I know that."</p>
<p>"I do not know yet," replied Muller slowly, "but I will find out, I
generally do."</p>
<p>"Oh, to think that I should have done that poor man such an injustice! It
is terrible, terrible! This house has been ghastly these days. His poor
aunt knows that he is innocent—she could never believe otherwise—she
has felt the hideous suspicion in my mind—it has made her suffering
worse—will they ever forgive me?"</p>
<p>"Her joy, if I can free her nephew, will make her forget everything. Go to
her now, Miss Roemer, comfort her with the assurance that you also believe
him to be innocent. I must hasten back to G—— and go on with
this quest."</p>
<p>The girl stood at the doorway shaded by the overhanging branches of two
great trees, looking down the street after the slight figure of the
detective. "Oh, it is all easier to hear, hard as it is, easier now that
this horrible suspicion has gone from my mind—why did I not think of
that before?"</p>
<p>Alone in the corner of the smoking compartment in the train to G—,
Muller arranged in his mind the facts he had already gathered. He had
questioned the servants of John Siders' former household, had found that
the dead man received very few letters, only an occasional business
communication from his bank. Of the few others, the servants knew nothing
except that he had always thrown the envelopes carelessly in the waste
paper basket and had never seemed to have any correspondence which he
cared to conceal. No friend from elsewhere had ever visited him in Grunau,
and he had made few friends there except the Graumann family.</p>
<p>The facts of the case, as he knew them now, were such as to make it
extremely doubtful that Graumann was the murderer. Muller himself had been
inclined to believe in the possibility of a quarrel between the two men,
particularly when he had heard that Graumann himself was in love with his
handsome ward. But the second thought that came to him then, impelled by
the unerring instinct that so often guided him to the truth, was the
assurance that in a case of this kind, in a case of a quarrel terminating
fatally, a man like Albert Graumann would be the very first to give
himself up to the police and to tell the facts of the case. Albert
Graumann was a man of honour and unimpeachable integrity. Such a man would
not persist in a foolish denial of the deed which he had committed in a
moment of temper. There would be nothing to gain from it, and his own
conscience would be his severest judge. "The disorder in the room?"
thought Muller. "It'll be too late for that now. I suppose they have
rearranged the place. I can only go by what the local detectives have
seen, by the police reports. But I do not understand this extreme
disorder. There is no reason why there should be a struggle when the
robber was armed with a pistol. If Siders was supposed to have been
interrupted when writing a letter, interrupted by a thief come with intent
to steal, a thief armed with a revolver, the sight of this weapon alone
would be sufficient to insure his not moving from his seat. I can
understand the open drawers and cupboard; that is explained by the thief's
hasty search for booty. But the torn window curtain and the overturned
chairs are peculiar.</p>
<p>"Of course there is always a possibility that the thief might have entered
one room while Siders was in the other; that the latter might have
surprised the robber in his search for money or valuables, and that there
might have been a hand-to-hand struggle before the intruder could pull out
his revolver. Oh, if I could only have seen the body! This is working
under terrific difficulties. The marks of a hand-to-hand struggle would
have been very plain on the clothes and on the person of the murdered man.
But this letter? I do not understand this letter at all. It is the dead
man's handwriting, that we know, but why did not the friend to whom it was
addressed come forward and make himself known? As far as I can learn from
the police reports in G—, there was no personal interest shown, no
personal inquiries made about the dead man. There was only the natural
excitement that a murder would create. Now a family, expecting to make a
pleasure excursion with a friend in a day or two and suddenly hearing that
this friend had been found murdered in his lodgings, would be inclined to
take some little personal interest in the matter. These people must have
been in town and at home, for the excursion spoken of in the letter was to
occur two days after the murder. Miss Roemer's remark about the dread that
some people have as to any connection with the police, is true to a
limited extent only. It is true only of the ignorant mind, not of a man
presumably well-to-do and properly educated. I do not understand why the
man to whom this letter was addressed has not made himself known. The only
explanation is—that there was no such man!" A sudden sharp whistle
broke from the detective's lips.</p>
<p>"I must examine the dead man's personal effects, his baggage, his papers;
there may be something there. His queer letter to Graumann—his
desire that the latter's visit should be kept secret—a visit which
apparently had no cause at all, except to get Graumann to the house, to
get him to the house in a way that he should be seen coming, but should
not be seen going away. What does this mean?</p>
<p>"Graumann was the only person against whom Siders had an active cause of
quarrel for the moment. There was one other man whom he hated, and this
other man was the prosecuting attorney who would conduct any case of
murder that came up in the town of G—.</p>
<p>"Now John Siders is found murdered—is found killed, in his lodgings,
the morning after he has arranged things so that his antagonist, his rival
in love, Albert Graumann, shall come under suspicion of having murdered
him.</p>
<p>"What evidence have we that this man did not commit suicide? We have the
evidence of the disorder in the room, a disorder that could have been made
just as well by the man himself before he ended his own life. We have the
evidence of a letter to some unknown, making plans for pleasure during the
next days, and speaking of further plans, presumably concerning business,
for the future. In a town the size of G—, where every one must have
read of the murder, no one has come forward claiming to be the friend for
whom this letter was written. Until this Unknown makes himself known, the
letter as an evidence points rather to premeditated suicide than to the
contrary. Oh, if I could only have seen the body! They tell me the pistol
was found some little distance from the body. Is it at all likely that a
murderer would go away leaving such evidence behind him? If Graumaun had
killed Siders in a hasty quarrel, he might possibly, in his excitement,
have left his revolver. But I have already disposed of this possibility. A
man of sufficient brains to so carefully plan his suicide as to conceal
every trace of it and cast suspicion upon the man who had made him
unhappy, such a one would be quite clever enough to throw the pistol far
away from his body and to leave no traces of powder on his coat or any
such other evidence.</p>
<p>"If I were to say now what I think, I would say that John Siders
deliberately took his own life and planned it in such a way as to cast
suspicion upon Albert Graumann. But that would indeed be a terrible
revenge. And I must have some tangible proof of it before any court will
accept my belief. This proof must be hidden somewhere. The thing for me to
do is to find it."</p>
<p>The evidence gathered at the time of the death went to show that Siders
had been paid a considerable sum in cash for the sale of his property at
Grunau. And there was no trace of his having deposited this sum in any
bank in G—— or in Grunau, in both of which places he had
deposited other securities. Therefore the money had presumably been in his
room at the time of his death. A search had been made for this money in
every possible place of concealment among the dead man's belongings, and
it had not been found. Muller asked the Police Commissioner to give him
the key to the rooms, which were still officially closed, and also the
keys to the dead man's pieces of baggage. Commissioner Lange seemed to
think all this extra search quite unnecessary, as it did not occur to him
that anything else was to be looked for except the money.</p>
<p>It was quite late when Muller began his examination of the dead man's
effects. He was struck by the fact that there was scarcely a bit of paper
to be found anywhere, no letters, no business papers, except bank books
showing the amount of his securities in the bank in G—— and in
Grunau, and giving facts about some investments in Chicago. There was
nothing of more recent date and no personal correspondence whatever. The
same was true of the pockets of the suit Siders had been wearing at the
time of his death. A man of any property or position at all in the world
gathers about him so much of this kind of material that its absence shows
premeditation. The suit Siders had been wearing when he was killed was
lying on the table in the room. It was a plain grey business suit of good
cut and material. The body had been prepared for burial in a beseeming
suit of black. Muller made a careful examination of the clothes, and found
only what the police reports showed him had already been found by the
examination made by the local authorities. Upon a second careful
examination, however, he found that in one of the vest pockets there was a
little extra pocket, like a change pocket, and in it he found a crumpled
piece of paper. He took it out, smoothed and read it. It was a post office
receipt for a registered letter. The date was still clear, but the name of
the person to whom the letter had been addressed was illegible. The
creases of the paper and a certain dampness, as if it had been
inadvertently touched by a wet finger, had smeared the writing. But the
letter had been sent the day before the death of John Siders, and it had
been registered from the main post office in G—. This was sufficient
for Muller. Then he turned to the desk. Here also there was nothing that
could help him. But a sudden thought, came to him, and he took up the
blotting pad. This, to his delight, was in the form of a book with a
handsome embroidered cover. It looked comparatively new and was, as Muller
surmised, a gift from Miss Roemer to her betrothed. But few of the pages
had been used, and on two of them a closely written letter had been
blotted several times, showing that there had been several sheets of the
letter. Muller held it up to the looking-glass, but the repeated blotting
had blurred the writing to such an extent that it was impossible to
decipher any but a few disconnected words, which gave no clue. On a page
further along on the blotter, however, he saw what appeared to be the
impression of an address. He held it up to the glass and gave a whistle of
delight. The words could be plainly deciphered here:</p>
<p>"MR. LEO PERNBURG,<br/>
"FRANKFURT AM MAIN,<br/>
"MAINZER LANDSTRASSE."<br/></p>
<p>and above the name was a smear which, after a little study, could be
deciphered as the written word "Registered."</p>
<p>With this page of the blotter carefully tucked away in his pocketbook,
Muller hurried to the post office, arriving just at closing hour. He made
himself known at once to the postmaster, and asked to be shown the records
of registered letters sent on a certain date. Here he found scheduled a
letter addressed to Mr. Leo Pernburg, Frankfurt am Main, sent by John
Siders, G—, Josef Street 7.</p>
<p>Muller then hastened to the telegraph office and despatched a lengthy
telegram to the postal authorities in Frankfurt am Main. When the answer
came to him next morning, he packed his grip and took the first express
train leaving G—. He first made a short visit, however, to Albert
Graumann's cell in the prison. Muller was much too kind-hearted not to
relieve the anxiety of this man, to whom such mental strain might easily
prove fatal. He told Graumann that he was going in search of evidence
which might throw light on the death of Siders, and comforted the prisoner
with the assurance that he, Muller, believed Graumann innocent, and
believed also that within a day or two he would return to G——
with proofs that his belief was the right one.</p>
<p>Three days later Muller returned to Grunau and went at once to the
Graumann home. It was quite late when he arrived, but he had already
notified Miss Roemer by telegram as to his coming, with a request that she
should be ready to see him. He found her waiting for him, pale and
anxious-eyed, when he arrived. "I have been to Frankfurt am Main," he
said, "and I have seen Mr. Pernburg—"</p>
<p>"Yes, yes, that is the name; now I remember," interrupted the girl
eagerly. "That is the name of John's friend there."</p>
<p>"I have seen Mr. Pernburg and he gave me this letter." Muller laid a thick
envelope on the girl's lap.</p>
<p>She looked down at it, her eyes widening as if she had seen a ghost. "That—that
is John's writing," she exclaimed in a hoarse whisper. "Where did it come
from?"</p>
<p>"Pernburg gave it to me. The day before his death John Siders sent him
this letter, requesting that Pernburg forward it to you before a certain
date. When I explained the circumstances to Mr. Pernburg, he gave me the
letter at once. I feel that this paper holds the clue to the mystery. Will
you open it?"</p>
<p>With trembling hands the girl tore open the envelope. It enclosed still
another sealed envelope, without an address. But there was a sheet of
paper around this letter, on which was written the following:</p>
<p>My beloved Eleonore:</p>
<p>Before you read what I have to say to you here I want you to promise me,
in memory of our love and by your hope of future salvation, that you will
do what I ask you to do.</p>
<p>I ask you to give the enclosed letter, although it is addressed to you, to
the Judge who will preside in the trial against Graumann. The letter is
written to you and will be given back to you. For you, the beloved of my
soul, you are the only human being with whom I can still communicate, to
whom I can still express my wishes. But you must not give the letter to
the Judge until you have assured yourself that the prosecuting attorney
insists upon Graumann's guilt. In case he is acquitted, which I do not
think probable, then open this letter in the presence of Graumann himself
and one or two witnesses. For I wish Graumann, who is innocent, to be able
to prove his innocence.</p>
<p>You will know by this time that I have determined to end my life by my own
hand. Forgive me, beloved. I cannot live on without you—without the
honour of which I was robbed so unjustly.</p>
<p>God bless you.</p>
<p>One who will love you even beyond the grave, Remember your promise. It was
given to the dead.</p>
<p>JOHN.</p>
<p>"Oh, what does it all mean?" asked Eleonora, dropping the letter in her
lap.</p>
<p>"It is as I thought," replied Muller. "John Siders took his own life, but
made every arrangement to have suspicion fall upon Graumann."</p>
<p>"But why? oh, why?"</p>
<p>"It was a terrible revenge. But perhaps—perhaps it was just
retribution. Graumaun would not understand that Siders could have been
suspected of, and imprisoned for, a theft he had not committed. He must
know now that it is quite possible for a man to be in danger of sentence
of death even, for a crime of which he is innocent."</p>
<p>"Oh, my God! It is terrible." The girl's head fell across her folded arms
on the table. Deep shuddering sobs shook her frame.</p>
<p>Muller waited quietly until the first shock had passed. Finally her sobs
died away and she raised her head again. "What am I to do?" she asked.</p>
<p>"You must open this letter to-morrow in the presence of the Police
Commissioner and Graumaun."</p>
<p>"But this promise? This promise that he asks of me—that I should
wait until the trial?"</p>
<p>"You have not given this promise. Would you take it upon yourself to
endanger your guardian's life still more? Every further day spent in his
prison, in this anxiety, might be fatal."</p>
<p>"But this promise? The promise demanded of me by the man to whom I had
given my love? Is it not my duty to keep it?"</p>
<p>Muller rose from his chair. His slight figure seemed to grow taller, and
the gentleness in his voice gave way to a commanding tone of firm
decision.</p>
<p>"Our duty is to the living, not to the dead. The dead have no right to
drag down others after them. Believe me, Miss Roemer, the purpose that was
in your betrothed's mind when he ended his own life, has been fulfilled.
Albert Graumann knows now what are the feelings of a man who bears the
prison stigma unjustly. He will never again judge his fellow-men as
harshly as he has done until now. His soul has been purged in these
terrible days; have you the right to endanger his life needlessly?"</p>
<p>"Oh, I do not know! I do not know what to do."</p>
<p>"I have no choice," said Muller firmly. "It is my duty to make known the
fact to the Police Commissioner that there is such a letter in existence.
The Police Commissioner will then have to follow his duty in demanding the
letter from you. Mr. Pernburg, Sider's friend, saw this argument at once.
Although he also had a letter from the dead man, asking him to send the
enclosure to you, registered, on a certain date, he knew that it was his
duty to give all the papers to the authorities. Would it not be better for
you to give them up of your own free will?" Muller took a step nearer the
girl and whispered: "And would it not be a noble revenge on your part? You
would be indeed returning good for evil."</p>
<p>Eleonora clasped her hands and her lips moved as if in silent prayer. Then
she rose slowly and held out the letters to Muller. "Do what you will with
them," she said. "My strength is at an end."</p>
<p>The next day, in the presence of Commissioner Lange and of the accused
Albert Graumann, Muller opened the letter which he had received from Miss
Roemer and read it aloud. The girl herself, by her own request, was not
present. Both Muller and Graumann understood that the strain of this
message from the dead would be too much for her to bear. This was the
letter:</p>
<p>G—— September 21st.</p>
<p>My beloved:</p>
<p>When you put this letter in the hands of the Judge, I will have found in
death the peace that I could never find on earth. There was no chance of
happiness for me since I have realised that I love you, that you love me,
and that I must give you up if I am to remain what I have always been—in
spite of everything—a man of honour.</p>
<p>Albert Graumann would keep his word, this I know. Wherever you might
follow me as my wife, there his will would have been before us, blasting
my reputation, blackening the flame which you were to bear.</p>
<p>I could not have endured it. My soul was sick of all this secrecy, sick at
the injustice of mankind. In spite of worldly success, my life was cold
and barren in the strange land to which I had fled. My home called to me
and I came back to it.</p>
<p>I kissed the earth of my own country, and I wept at my mother's grave. I
was happy again under the skies which had domed above my childhood. For I
am an honest man, beloved, and I always have been.</p>
<p>One day I sat at table beside the man—the Judge who condemned me,
here in G—— in those terrible days. He naturally did not know
me again. I, myself, brought the conversation around to a professional
subject. I asked him if it were not possible that circumstantial evidence
could lie; if the entire past, the reputation of the accused would not be
a factor in his favour. The Judge denied it. It was his opinion, beyond a
doubt, that circumstantial evidence was sufficient to convict anyone.</p>
<p>My soul rose within me. This infallibility, this legal arrogance, aroused
my blood. "That man should have a lesson!" I said to myself.</p>
<p>But I had forgotten it all—all my anger, all my hatred and
bitterness, when I met you. I dare not trust myself to think of you too
much, now that everything is arranged for the one last step. It takes all
my control to keep my decision unwavering while I sit here and tell you
how much your love, your great tenderness, your sweet trust in me, meant
to me.</p>
<p>Let me talk rather of Albert Graumann. I will forgive him for believing in
my guilt, but I cannot forgive him that he, the man of cultivation and
mental grasp, could not believe it possible for a convicted thief to have
repented and to have lived an honest life after the atonement of his
crime. I still cannot believe that this was Graumann's opinion. I am
forced to think that it was an excuse only on his part, an excuse to keep
us apart, an excuse to keep you for himself.</p>
<p>You are lost to me now. There is nothing more in life for me. If the
injustice of mankind has stained my honour beyond repair, has robbed me of
every chance of happiness at any time and in any place, then I die easily,
beloved, for there is little charm in such a life as would be mine after
this.</p>
<p>But I do not wish to die quite in vain. There are two men who have touched
my life, who need the lesson my death can teach them. These men are Albert
Graumann and the prosecuting attorney Gustav Schmidt, the man who once
condemned me so cruelly. His present position would make him the
representative of the state in a murder trial, and I know his opinions too
well not to foresee that he would declare Graumann guilty because of the
circumstantial evidence which will be against him. My letter, given to the
Presiding Judge after the Attorney has made his speech, will cause him
humiliation, will ruin his brilliant arguments and cast ridicule upon him.</p>
<p>Do not think me hard or revengeful. I do not hate anyone now that death is
so near. But is it inhuman that I should want to teach these two men a
lesson? a lesson which they need, believe me, and it is such a slight
compensation for the torture these last eight years have been to me!</p>
<p>And now I will explain in detail all the circumstances. I have arranged
that Albert Graumann shall come to me on the evening of September 23rd
between 7 and 8 o'clock. I asked him to do so by letter, asking him also
to keep the fact of his visit to me a secret. To-night, the 22nd of
September, I received his answer promising that he would come. Therefore I
can look upon everything that is to happen, as having already happened,
for now there need be no further change in my plans. I will send this
letter this evening to my friend Pernburg in Frankfurt am Main. In case
anything should happen that would render impossible for me to carry out my
plans, I will send Pernburg another letter asking him not to carry out the
instructions of the first.</p>
<p>I can now proceed to tell you what will happen here to-morrow evening, the
23rd of September.</p>
<p>Albert Graumann will come to me, unknown to his family or friends, as I
have asked him to come. I will so arrange it that the old servant will see
him come in but will not see him go out. My landlady will not be in my
way, for she has already told me that she will spend the night of the 23rd
with her mother, in another part of the city. It is to be a birthday
celebration I believe, so that I can be certain her plans will not be
changed.</p>
<p>Graumann and I will be alone, therefore, with no reliable witnesses near.
I will keep him there for a little while with commonplace conversation,
for I have nothing to say to him. If he moves near the desk I will upset
the inkbottle. The spots on his clothes will be another evidence against
him. I will endeavour to get him to keep my jewelry which is, as you know,
of considerable value. I will tell him that I am going away for a while
and ask him to take charge of it for me. I, myself, will take him down to
the door and let him out, when I have satisfied myself that the old
servant is in bed or at least at the back of the house. The revolver which
shall end my misery is Graumann's property. I took it from its place
without his knowledge.</p>
<p>The 10,000 gulden which I told my landlady were still in the house, and
which would therefore be thought missing after my death, I have deposited
in a bank in Frankfort in your name. Here is the certificate of deposit.</p>
<p>I will endeavour not to hold the revolver sufficiently close to have the
powder burn my clothes. And I will exert every effort of mind and body to
throw it far from me after I have fired the fatal shot. I think that I
will be able to do this, for I am a very good shot and I have no fear of
death. One thing more I will do, to turn aside all suspicion of suicide. I
will write a letter to some person who does not exist, a letter which will
make it appear as if I were in excellent humour and planning for the
future.</p>
<p>And now, good-bye to life. People have called me eccentric, they may be
right. This last deed of mine at least, is out of the ordinary. No one
will say now that ended my life in a moment of darkened mind, in a rush of
despair. My brain is perfectly clear, my heart beats calmly, now that I
have arranged everything for my departure from this world of falsehood and
unreality. My last deed shall go to prove to the world how little actual,
apparent facts can be trusted.</p>
<p>The one thing real, the one thing true in all this world of falsehood was
your love and your trust. I thank you for it.</p>
<p>THEODOR BELLMANN,<br/>
known as<br/>
JOHN SIDERS.<br/></p>
<p>Joseph Muller refuses to take any particular credit for this case. The
letter would have come in time to prevent Graumann's conviction without
his assistance, he says. The only person whose gratitude he has a right to
is Prosecuting Attorney Gustav Schmidt. He managed to have the Police
Commissioner in G—— read the letter in detail to the attorney.
But Muller himself knows that it failed of its effect, so far as that
dignitary was concerned. For nothing but open ridicule could ever convince
a man of such decided opinions that he is not the one infallible person in
the world.</p>
<p>But Albert Graumann had learned his lesson. And he told Muller himself
that the few days of life which might remain to him were a gift to him
from the detective. He felt that his weak heart would not have stood the
strain and the disgrace of an open trial, even if that trial ended in
acquittal. Two months later he was found dead in his bed, a calm smile on
his lips.</p>
<p>Before he died he had learned that it was the undaunted courage of his
timid little old aunt that had brought Muller to take charge of the case
and to free her beloved nephew from the dreaded prison. And the last days
that these two passed together were very happy.</p>
<p>But as aforesaid, Muller refuses to have this case included in the list of
his successes. He did not change the ultimate result, he merely
anticipated it, he says.</p>
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