are plot of ground
beautifully cultivated. The left wing of the house was about six windows
longer than the other, and from the first story of it it would be quite
easy to look out over the vacant lot where the old shed stood which had
served as a night's lodging for Johann Knoll.

There was not the slightest doubt in Muller's mind that this part of the
tramp's story was true, for by a natural process of elimination he knew
there was nothing to be gained by inventing any such tale. Besides
which the detective himself had been to look at the shed. His well-known
pedantic thoroughness would not permit him to take any one's word for
anything that he might find out for himself, In his investigations on
Tuesday morning he had already seen the half-ruined shed, now he knew
that it contained a broken bench.

Thus far, therefore, Knoll's story was proved to be true-but there was
something that didn't quite hitch in another way. The tramp had said
that he had seen first a woman and then a man come from the main house
and go in the direction of the smaller house which he took to be the
gardener's dwelling. This Muller discovered now was quite impossible.
A tall hedge, fully seven or eight feet high and very thick, stretched
from the courtyard far down into the garden past the gardener's little
house. There was a broad path on the right and the left of this green
wall. From his position in the shed, Knoll could have seen people
passing only when they were on the right side of the hedge. But to reach
the gardener's house from the main dwelling, the shortest way would be
on the left side of the hedge. This much Muller saw, then he heard the
butler's steps along the hall and he went back to the corner where the
dog lay.

Franz was not alone. There was some one else with him, the housekeeper,
Mrs. Bernauer. Just as they opened the door, Muller heard her say:
"If the gentleman is a veterinary, then we'd better ask him about the
parrot--"

The sentence was never finished. Muller never found out what was the
matter with the parrot, for as he looked up with a polite smile of
interest, he looked into a pale face, into a pair of eyes that opened
wide in terror, and heard trembling lips frame the words: "There he is
again!"

A moment later Mrs. Bernauer would have been glad to have recalled her
exclamation, but it was too late.

Muller bowed before her and asked: "'There he is again,' you said; have
you ever seen me before?"

The w