to meet him
there. He may already be on his way home."

"On his way home?" cried the housekeeper in terror, staggering where she
stood.

Muller led her gently to a chair. "Sit down here and listen to me
calmly. This is what I mean. If Mr. Thorne has seen in the papers that a
man has been arrested and accused of the murder of Leopold Winkler, then
he will take the next train back and give himself up to the authorities.
That he makes no such move as long as he thinks there is no suspicion
on any one else, no possibility that any one else could suffer the
consequences of his deed--is quite comprehensible--it is only natural
and human."

Adele Bernauer sighed deeply again and heavy tears ran down her cheeks,
in strange contrast to the ghost of a smile that parted her lips and
shone in her dimmed eyes.

"You know him better than I do," she murmured almost inaudibly, "you
know him better than I do, and I have known him for so long."

A moment later Muller had parted from the housekeeper with a warm,
sincere pressure of the hand.

"Lieutenant Theobald Leining was here on a visit to his sister last
March, wasn't he?" the detective asked as Franz led him out of the gate.

"Yes, sir; the Lieutenant was here just about that time," answered the
old man.

"And he left here on the 16th of March?"

"On the 16th? Why, it may have been--yes, it was the 16th--that is our
lady's birthday. He went away that day." Franz bowed a farewell to this
stranger who began to appear uncanny in his eyes, and shutting the gate
carefully he returned to the house.

"What does the man want anyway?" he murmured to himself, shivering
involuntarily. Without knowing why he turned his steps towards Mrs.
Bernauer's room. He opened the door hesitatingly as if afraid of what he
might see there. He would not have been at all surprised if he had found
the housekeeper fainting on the floor as before.

But she was not fainting this time. She was very much alive, for, to
Franz's great astonishment, she was busied at the packing of a valise.

"Are you going away too?" asked Franz. Mrs. Bernauer answered in a voice
that was dull with weariness: "Yes, Franz, I am going away. Will you
please look up the time-tables of the Southern railroad and let me know
when the morning express leaves? And please order a cab in time for it.
I will depend upon you to look after the house in my absence. You
can imagine that it must be something very important that takes me