The knowledge came as a terrible surprise to him. He was dazed almost.
"And I,--I've got to arrest him in my own house?" he exclaimed as if
horrified. And Muller answered calmly: "I doubt if you will have the
opportunity, sir."

"Muller! Did you, again--"

"Yes, I did! I have again warned an unfortunate. It's my nature, I
can't seem to help it. But you will find the Councillor in his house. He
promised me that."

"And you believe it?"

"That man will keep his promise," said Muller quietly.

Councillor Kniepp did keep his promise. When the police arrived at the
hunting castle shortly after midnight, they found the terrified servants
standing by the body of their master.

"Well, Muller, you had better luck than you deserved this time," Bauer
said a few days later. "This last trick has made you quite impossible
for the service. But you needn't worry about that, because the legacy
Kniepp left you will put you out of reach of want."

The detective was as much surprised as anybody. He was as if dazed by
his unexpected good fortune. The day before he was a poor man bowed
under the weight of sordid cares, and now he was the possessor of twenty
thousand gulden. And it was not his clever brain but his warm heart that
had won this fortune for him. His breast swelled with gratitude as he
thought of the unhappy man whose life had been ruined by the careless
cruelty of others and his own passions. Again and again he read the
letter which had been found on Kniepp's desk, addressed to him and which
had been handed out to him after the inquest.

My friend:--

You have saved me from the shame of an open trial. I thank you
for this from the very depth of my heart. I have left you a
part of my own private fortune, that you may be a free man, free
as a poor man never can be. You can accept this present for it
comes from the hand of an honest man in spite of all. Yes, I
compelled my wife to go to her death after I had compelled her
to confess her shame to me, and I entered her lover's house with
the knowledge I had forced from her. When I looked through the
keyhole and saw his false face before me, I murdered him in cold
blood. Then, that the truth might not be suspected, I continued
to play the sorrowing husband. I wore on my watch chain the ring
I had had made in imitation of the one my wife had worn. This
original ring of hers, her wedding ring which she had defiled,
I sent in the form of