to the police station he found that notices of the
occurrence had already been sent out to the papers.

CHAPTER III. THE EVENING PAPER

The autopsy proved beyond a doubt that the murdered man had been dead
for many hours before the discovery of his body. The bullet which had
struck him in the back had pierced the trachea and death had occurred
within a few minutes. The only marks for identification of the body were
the initials L. W. on his underwear. The evening paper printed an exact
description of the man's appearance and his clothing.

It was about ten o'clock next morning when Mrs. Klingmayer, a widow
living in a quiet street at the opposite end of the city from Hietzing,
returned from her morning marketing. It was only a few little bundles
that she brought with her and she set about preparing her simple dinner.
Her packages were wrapped in newspapers, which she carefully smoothed
out and laid on the dresser.

Mrs. Klingmayer was the widow of a street-car conductor and the little
pension which she received from the company, as well as the money she
could earn for herself, did not permit of the indulgence in a daily
newspaper. And yet the reading of the papers was the one luxury for
which the simple woman longed. Her grocer, who was a friend of years,
knew this and would wrap up her purchases in papers of recent date,
knowing that she could then enjoy them in her few moments of leisure.
To-day this leisure came unexpectedly early, for Mrs. Klingmayer had
less work than usual to attend to.

Her little flat consisted of two rooms and a kitchen with a large closet
opening out from it. She lived in the kitchen and rented the front
rooms. Her tenants were a middle-aged man, inspector in a factory,
who had the larger room; and a younger man who was bookkeeper in an
importing house in the city. But this young man had not been at home
for forty-eight hours, a fact, however, which did not greatly worry his
landlady. The gentleman in question lived a rather dissipated life
and it was not the first time that he had remained away from home over
night. It is true that it was the first time that he had not been home
for two successive nights. But as Mrs. Klingmayer thought, everything
has to happen the first time sometime. "It's not likely to be the last
time," the worthy woman thought.

At all events she was rather glad of it to-day, for she suffered from
rheumatism and it was difficult for her to get about. The y