Commissioner Von Riedau sat at his desk late that evening, finishing up some important papers. The quiet of an undisturbed night watch had settled down on the busy police station. An occasional low murmur of whispering voices floated up from the guardroom below, but otherwise the stillness was broken only by the scratching of the commissioner's pen and the rustle of the paper as he turned the leaves. It was a silence so complete that a light step on the stair outside and the gentle turning of the doorknob was heard distinctly and the commissioner looked up with almost a start to see who was coming to his room so late.
Joseph Muller stood in the open door, awaiting his chief's official recognition.
"Oh ! it's you, Muller. So late? Come in. Anything new?" asked the commissioner. "Have you succeeded in drawing a confession from that stubborn tramp yet? You've been interviewing him, I take it?""Yes, I had a long talk with Johann Knoll to-day.""Well, that ought to help matters along. Has he confessed? What could you get out of him?""Nothing, or almost nothing more than he told us here in the station, sir.
"The man's incredibly stubborn," said the commissioner. "If he could only be made to understand that a free confession would benefit him more than any one else! Well, don't look so down-cast about it, Muller. This thing is going to take longer than we thought at first for such a simple affair. But it's only a question of time until the man comes to his senses. You'll get him to talk soon. You always do. And even if you should fail here, this matter is not so very important, when we think of all the other things you have done."Muller, standing front of the desk, shook his head sadly.
"But I haven't failed here, sir. More's the pity, I had almost said.""What!" The commissioner looked up in surprise. "I thought you just said that you couldn't get anything more out of the accused.""Knoll has told us all he knows, sir. He did not murder Leopold Winkler.""Hmph!" The commissioner's exclamation had a touch of acidity in it. "Then, if he didn't murder him, who did?""Herbert Thorne, painter, living in the Thorne mansion in B. Street, Hietzing, now in Venice, Hotel Danieli. I ask for a warrant for his arrest, sir, and orders to start for Venice on the early morning express to-morrow.""Muller! ... what the deuce does all this mean?" The commissioner sprang up, his face flushing deeply as he leaned over the desk staring at the sad quiet face of the little man opposite. "What are you talking about? What does all this mean?""It means, sir, that we now know who committed the murder in Hietzing. Johann Knoll is innocent of anything more than the theft confessed by himself. He took the purse and watch from the senseless form of the just murdered man. The body was warm and still supple and the tramp supposed the victim to be merely intoxicated. His story was in every respect true, sir."The commissioner flushed still deeper. "And who do you say murdered this man?""Herbert Thorne, sir.
"But Thome! I know of him ... have even a slight personal acquaintance with him. Thorne is a rich man, of excellent family.
Why should he murder and rob an obscure clerk like this Winkler?""He did not rob him sir, Knoll did that."
"Oh, yes. But why should Thorne commit murder on this man who scarcely touched his life at any point ... It's incredible!
Muller! Muller! are you sure you are not letting your imagination run away with you again? It is a serious thing to make such an accusation against any man, much less against a man in Thorne's position. Are you sure of what you are saying?" The commissioner's excitement rendered him almost inarticulate. The shock of the surprise occasioned by the detective's words produced a feeling of irritation ... a phenomenon not unusual in the minds of worthy but pedantic men of affairs when confronted by a startling new thought.
"I am quite sure of what I am saying, sir. I have just heard the confession of one who might be called an accomplice of the murderer.""It is incredible ... incredible! An accomplice you say? ... who is this accomplice? Might it not be some one who has a grudge against Thorne - some one who is trying to purposely mislead you ?""I am not so easily deceived or misled, sir. Every evidence points to Thorne, and the confession I have just heard was made by a woman who loves him, who has loved and cared for him from his babyhood.
