ead was already aching from the wine and he did not feel
comfortable in the drafty old building. He came out from it, crept along
to the spot where he had climbed the fence before, and after listening
carefully and hearing nothing on either side, he climbed back to the
road. The Street lay silent and empty, which was just what he was hoping
for. He held carefully to the shadow thrown by the high board fence over
which he had climbed until he came to its end. Then he remembered that
he hadn't done anything wrong and stepped out boldly into the moonlight.
The moon was well up now and the street was almost as light as day.
Knoll was attracted by the queer shadows thrown by a big elder tree,
waving its long branches in the wind. As he came nearer he saw that part
of the shadow was no shadow at all but was the body of a man lying in
the street near the bush. "I thought sure he was drunk" was the way
Knoll described it. "I've been like that myself often until somebody
came along and found me."

When he came to this spot in his story, he halted and drew a long
breath. Commissioner von Riedau had begun to make some figures on the
paper in front of him, then changed the lines until the head of a pretty
woman in a fur hat took shape under his fingers.

"Well, go on," he said, looking with interest at his drawing and
improving it with several quick strokes.

Johann Knoll continued:

"Then the devil came over me and I thought I better take this good
opportunity--well--I did. The man was lying on his back and I saw a
watch chain on his dark vest. I bent over him and took his watch
and chain. Then I felt around in his pocket and found his purse. And
then--well then I felt sorry for him lying out in the open road like
that, and I thought I'd lift him up and put him somewhere where he could
sleep it off more convenient. But I didn't see there was a little ditch
there and I stumbled over it and dropped him. 'It's a good thing he's so
drunk that even this don't wake him up,' I thought, and ran off. Then I
thought I heard something moving and I was scared stiff, but there was
nothing in the street at all. I thought I had better take to the fields
though and I crossed through some corn and then out onto another street.
Finally I walked into the city, stayed there till this morning, sold the
watch, then went to Pressburg."

"So that was the way it was," said the commissioner, pushing his drawing
away from him and motioning to the polic