escape the scandal and his own share
in the responsibility for it. And to a veteran officer, bred in the
exaggerated social ethics of his profession, such a disgrace means ruin,
sometimes even voluntary death.

"Oh, dear, if it had only been Knoll who did it," said Muller with a
sigh that was almost a groan.

Then he rose slowly and heavily, and slowly and heavily, as if borne
down by the weight of great weariness, he reached for his hat and coat
and left the house.

Whether he wished it or not, he knew it was his duty to go on to the
bitter end on this trail he had followed up all day from the moment that
he caught that fleeting glimpse of Mrs. Bernauer's haggard face at the
garden gate. He was almost angry with the woman, because she chanced to
look out of the gate at just that moment, showing him her face distorted
with anxiety. For it was her face that had drawn Muller to the trail, a
trail at the end of which misery awaited those for whom this woman had
worked for years, those whom she loved and who treated her as one of the
family.

Muller knew now that the one-time nurse was in league with her former
charge; that Thorne and Adele Bernauer were in each other's confidence;
that the man sat waiting for the signal which she was to give him, a
signal bringing so much disgrace and sorrow in its train.

If the woman had not spied upon and betrayed her mistress, this terrible
event, which now weighed upon her own soul, would not have happened.

"A faithful servant, indeed," said Muller, with a harsh laugh.

Then maturer consideration came and forced him to acknowledge that it
was indeed devotion that had swayed Adele Bernauer, devotion to her
master more than to her mistress. This was hardly to be wondered at. But
she had not thought what might come from her revelations, what had come
of them. For now her pet, the baby who had once lain in her arms, the
handsome, gifted man whom she adored with more than the love of many a
mother for the child of her own blood, was under the shadow of hideous
disgrace and doom, was the just prey of the law for open trial and
condemnation as a murderer.

Muller sighed deeply once more and then came one of those moments
which he had spoken of to the unhappy woman that very day. He felt like
cursing the fatal gift that was his, the gift to see what was hidden
from others, this something within him that forced him relentlessly
onward until he had uncovered the truth, and brought mi