under the handkerchief.
Langen came out of his dark thoughts only when Muller's voice broke the
silence. "But you miscalculated, if you expected to inherit from your
sister. She is still a minor and your father's will would have given you
only ten thousand guldens.

"But you forget that Asta will be twenty-four on the third of December."

"Ah, then you would have kept her alive until then."

"You understand quickly," said Langen with a mocking smile.

"But she disappeared on the eighteenth of November. How could you prove
that she died after her birthday, therefore in full possession of her
fortune and without leaving any will?"

"That is very simple. I buy several newspapers every day. I would have
taken them up to the fourth and fifth of December and left them here
with the body."

"You are more clever even than I thought," said the detective dryly as
he heard the commissioner's steps behind him. Muller put a whistle
to his lips and its shrill tone ran through the house, calling up the
policeman who stood by the door.

Egon Langen's face was grey with pallor, his features were distorted,
and yet there was the ghost of a smile on his lips as he saw his captors
enter the door. He put his hand out, raised his handkerchief hastily
and then a wild scream echoed through the room, a scream that ended in a
ghastly groan.

"I have taken your bottle, you might as well give yourself up quietly,"
said Muller calmly, holding his revolver near Langen's face. The
prisoner threw himself at the detective but was caught and overpowered
by Amster and the policeman.

A quarter of an hour later the cabs drove back toward the city. Inside
one cowered Egon Langen, watched by the policeman and Amster. Berner was
on the box beside the driver, telling the now interested man the story
of what had happened to his dear young lady. In the other cab sat Asta
Langen with Kurt von Mayringen and Muller.

"Do you feel better now?" asked the young commissioner in sincere
sympathy that was mingled with admiration for the delicate beauty of
the girl beside him, an admiration heightened by her romantic story and
marvelous escape.

Asta nodded and answered gently: "I feel as if some terrible weight were
lifted from my heart and brain. But I doubt if I will ever forget these
horrible days, when I had already come to accept it as a fact that--that
I was to be murdered."

"This is the man to whom you owe your escape," said the commissioner,
lay