The Case of the Registered Letter | Page 5

the world in fear and trembling, impelled by the
stress of a great love.
A knock was heard at the door, and a small, slight man, with a kind,
smooth-shaven face, entered at the commissioner's call. "You sent for
me, sir?" he asked.

"Yes, Muller, there is a matter here in which I need your advice, your
assistance, perhaps. This is Detective Muller, Miss--" (the
commissioner picked up the card on his desk) "Miss Graumann. If you
will tell us now, more in detail, all that you can tell us about this case,
we may be able to help you."
"Oh, if you would," murmured Miss Graumann, with something more
of hope in her voice. The expression of sympathetic interest on the face
of the newcomer had already won her confidence for him. Her slight
figure straightened up in the chair, and the two men sat down opposite
her, prepared to listen to her story.
"I will tell you all I know and understand about this matter, gentlemen,"
she began. "My name is Babette Graumann, and I live with my nephew,
Albert Graumann, engineering expert, in the village of Grunau, which
is not far from the city of G--. My nephew Albert, the dearest, truest--"
sobs threatened to overcome her again, but she mastered them bravely.
"Albert is now in prison, accused of the murder of his friend, John
Siders, in the latter's lodgings in G--."
"Yes, that is the gist of what you have already told me," said the
commissioner. "Muller, Miss Graumann believes her nephew innocent,
contrary to the opinion of the local authorities in G--. She has come to
ask for some one from here who could ferret out the truth of this matter.
You are free now, and if we find that it can be done without offending
the local authorities--"
"Who is the commissioner in charge of the case in G--?" asked Muller.
"Commissioner Lange is his name, I believe," replied Miss Graumann.
"H'm!" Muller and the commissioner exchanged glances.
"I think we can venture to hear more of this," said the commissioner, as
if in answer to their unspoken thought. "Can you give us the details
now, Madam? Who is, or rather who was, this John Siders?"
"John Siders came to our village a little over a year ago," continued

Miss Graumann. "He came from Chicago; he told us, although he was
evidently a German by birth. He bought a nice little piece of property,
not far from our home, and settled down there. He was a quiet man and
made few friends, but he seemed to take to Albert and came to see us
frequently. Albert had spent some years in America, in Chicago, and
Siders liked to talk to him about things and people there. But one day
Siders suddenly sold his property and moved to G--. Two weeks later
he was found dead in his lodgings in the city, murdered, and now--now
they have accused Albert of the crime."
"On what grounds?--oh, I beg your pardon, sir; I did not mean--"
"That's all right, Muller," said the commissioner. "As you may have to
undertake the case, you might as well begin to do the questioning now."
"They say"--Miss Graumann's voice quavered--"they say that Albert
was the last person known to have been in Siders' room; they say that it
was his revolver, found in the room. That is the dreadful part of it--it
was his revolver. He acknowledges it, but he did not know, until the
police showed it to him, that the weapon was not in its usual place in
his study. They tell me that everything speaks for his guilt, but I cannot
believe it--I cannot. He says he is innocent in spite of everything. I
believe him. I brought him up, sir; I was like his own mother to him.
He never knew any other mother. He never lied to me, not once, when
he was a little boy, and I don't believe he'd lie to me now, now that he's
a man of forty-five. He says he did not kill John Siders. Oh, I know,
even without his saying it, that he would not do such a thing."
"Can you tell us anything more about the murder itself?" questioned
Muller gently. "Is there any possibility of suicide? Or was there a
robbery?"
"They say it was no suicide, sir, and that there was a large sum of
money missing. But why should Albert take any one else's money? He
has money of his own, and he earns a good income besides--we have
all that we need. Oh, it is some dreadful mistake! There is the
newspaper account of the discovery of the body. Perhaps Mr. Muller
might like to read that." She pointed to a sheet of newspaper on