The Councillor rose suddenly from his chair. "Who are you? What news is
it you bring?" he asked with a voice that began to tremble.

Muller raised his head sharply as if his decision had been made, and his
kind intelligent eyes grew soft as they rested on the pale face of
the stately man before him. "I belong to the Secret Police and I
am compelled to find out the secrets of others--not because of my
profession--no, because my own nature compels me--I must do it. I have
just come from Vienna and I bring the last of the proofs necessary to
turn you over to the courts. And yet you are a thousand times better
than the coward who stole the honour of your wife and who hid behind
the shelter of the law--and therefore, therefore, therefore--" Muller's
voice grew hoarse, then died away altogether.

Kniepp listened with pallid cheeks but without a quiver. Now he spoke,
completing the other's words: "And therefore you wish to save me from
the prison or from the gallows? I thank you. What is your name?" The
unhappy man spoke as calmly as if the matter scarcely concerned him at
all.

The detective told him his name.

"Muller, Muller," repeated the Councillor, as if he were particularly
anxious to remember the name. He held out his hand to the detective.
"I thank you, ab, indeed, it thank you," he said with the first sign
of emotion he had shown, and then added low: "Do not fear that you will
have trouble on my account. They can find me in my home." With these
words he turned away and sat down in his chair again. When Bauer entered
the room a few moments later, Kniepp was smoking calmly.

"Now, Muller, I'm ready. Horn will be in in a moment, friend Kniepp; I
know you will enjoy his chatter." The chief led the way out of the room
through another door. He could not see the ghastly pale face of the
guest he left behind him, for it was almost hidden in a cloud of thick
smoke, but Muller turned back once more at the threshold and caught
a last grateful glance from eyes shadowed by deep sadness, as the
Councillor raised his hand in a friendly gesture.

"Dear Muller, you take so long to get at the point of the story! Don't
you see you are torturing me?" This outburst came from the Chief
about an hour later. But the detective would not permit himself to be
interrupted in spinning out his story in his own way, and it was nearly
another hour before Bauer knew that the man for whose name he had been
waiting so long was Leo Kniepp.