Part 10 (1/2)
”Yes, that will be better, about a cupful will do,” was Muller's answer.
He knew that this harmless remedy would be likely to do the dog good and at the present moment he wanted to be left alone in the room. As soon as Franz had gone, the detective hastened to the window, placing himself behind the curtain so that he could not be seen from outside. He himself could see first a wide courtyard lying between the two wings of the house, then beyond it the garden, an immense square plot of ground beautifully cultivated. The left wing of the house was about six windows longer than the other, and from the first story of it it would be quite easy to look out over the vacant lot where the old shed stood which had served as a night's lodging for Johann Knoll.
There was not the slightest doubt in Muller's mind that this part of the tramp's story was true, for by a natural process of elimination he knew there was nothing to be gained by inventing any such tale. Besides which the detective himself had been to look at the shed. His well-known pedantic thoroughness would not permit him to take any one's word for anything that he might find out for himself, In his investigations on Tuesday morning he had already seen the half-ruined shed, now he knew that it contained a broken bench.
Thus far, therefore, Knoll's story was proved to be true-but there was something that didn't quite hitch in another way. The tramp had said that he had seen first a woman and then a man come from the main house and go in the direction of the smaller house which he took to be the gardener's dwelling. This Muller discovered now was quite impossible.
A tall hedge, fully seven or eight feet high and very thick, stretched from the courtyard far down into the garden past the gardener's little house. There was a broad path on the right and the left of this green wall. From his position in the shed, Knoll could have seen people pa.s.sing only when they were on the right side of the hedge. But to reach the gardener's house from the main dwelling, the shortest way would be on the left side of the hedge. This much Muller saw, then he heard the butler's steps along the hall and he went back to the corner where the dog lay.
Franz was not alone. There was some one else with him, the housekeeper, Mrs. Bernauer. Just as they opened the door, Muller heard her say: ”If the gentleman is a veterinary, then we'd better ask him about the parrot--”
The sentence was never finished. Muller never found out what was the matter with the parrot, for as he looked up with a polite smile of interest, he looked into a pale face, into a pair of eyes that opened wide in terror, and heard trembling lips frame the words: ”There he is again!”
A moment later Mrs. Bernauer would have been glad to have recalled her exclamation, but it was too late.
Muller bowed before her and asked: ”'There he is again,' you said; have you ever seen me before?”
The woman looked at him as if hypnotised and answered almost in a whisper: ”I saw you Tuesday morning for the first time, Tuesday morning when the family were going away. Then I saw you pa.s.s through our street twice again that same day. This morning you went past the garden gate and now I find you here. What-what is it you want of us?”
”I will tell you what I want, Mrs. Bernauer, but first I want to speak to you alone. Mr. Franz doesn't mind leaving us for a while, does he?”
”But why?” said the old man hesitatingly. He didn't understand at all what was going on and he would much rather have remained.
”Because I came here for the special purpose of speaking to Mrs.
Bernauer,” replied Muller calmly.
”Then you didn't come on account of the dog?”
”No, I didn't come on account of the dog.”
”Then you--you lied to me?”
”Partly.”
”And you're no veterinary?”
”No--I can help your dog, but I am not a veterinary and never have been.”
”What are you then?”
”I will tell Mrs. Bernauer who and what I am when you are outside--outside in the courtyard there. You can walk about in the garden if you want to, or else go and get some simple purgative for this dog. That is all he needs; he has been over-fed.”
Franz was quite bewildered. These new developments promised to be interesting and he was torn between his desire to know more, and his doubts as to the propriety of leaving the housekeeper with this queer stranger. He hesitated until the woman herself motioned to him to go. He went out into the hall, then into the courtyard, watched by the two in the room who stood silently in the window until they saw the butler pa.s.s down into the garden. Then they looked at each other.
”You belong to the police?” asked Adele Bernauer finally with a deep sigh.
”That was a good guess,” replied Muller with an ironic smile, adding: ”All who have any reason to fear us are very quick in recognising us.”
”What do you mean by that?” she exclaimed with a start. ”What are you thinking of?”
”I am thinking about the same thing that you are thinking of--that I have proved you are thinking of--the same thing that drove you out into the street yesterday and this morning to buy the papers. These papers print news which is interesting many people just now, and some people a great deal. I am thinking of the same thing that was evidently in your thoughts as you peered out of the garden gate this morning, although you would not come out into the street. I know that you do not read even one newspaper regularly. I know also that yesterday and today you bought a great many papers, apparently to get every possible detail about a certain subject. Do you deny this?”
She did not deny it, she did not answer at all. She sank down on a chair, her wide staring eyes looking straight ahead of her, and trembling so that the old chair cracked underneath her weight. But this condition did not last long. The woman had herself well under control.