The Case of the Registered Letter | Page 9

because you were the last person seen in the
company of the murdered man?"
"Exactly. Then I may go back and tell you something of my connection
with John Siders?"
"It would be the very best thing to do."
"I live in Grunau, as you doubtless know, and am the engineering
expert of large machine works there. My father before me held an
important position in the factory, and my family have always lived in
Grunau. I have traveled a great deal myself. I am forty-five years old, a
childless widower, and live with my old aunt, Miss Babette Graumann,
and my ward, Miss Eleonora Roemer, a young lady of twenty-two."
Muller looked up with a slight start of surprise, but did not say anything.
Graumann continued:
"A little over a year ago, John Siders, who signed himself as coming
from Chicago, bought a piece of property in our town and came to live
there. I made his acquaintance in the cafe and he seemed to take a fancy
to me. I also had spent several years in Chicago, and we naturally came
to speak of the place. We discovered that we had several mutual
acquaintances there, and enjoyed talking over the old times. Otherwise
I did not take particularly to the man, and as I came to know him better

I noticed that he never mentioned that part of his life which lay back of
the years in Chicago. I asked a casual question once or twice as to his
home and family, but he evaded me every time, and would not give a
direct answer. He was evidently a German by birth and education, a
man with university training, and one who knew life thoroughly. He
had delightful manners, and when he could forget his shyness for a
while, he could be very agreeable. The ladies of my family came to like
him, and encouraged him to call frequently. Then the thing happened
that I should not have believed possible. My ward, Miss Roemer, a
quiet, reserved girl, fell in love with this man about whom none of us
knew anything, a man with a past of which he did not care to speak.
"I was not in any way satisfied with the match, and they seemed to
realise it. For Siders managed to persuade the girl to a secret
engagement. I discovered it a month or two ago, and it made me very
angry. I did not let them see how badly I felt, but I warned Lora not to
have too much to do with the boy, and I set about finding out
something regarding his earlier life. It was my duty to do this, as I was
the girl's guardian. She has no other relative living, and no one to turn
to except my aunt and myself. I wrote to Mr. Richard Tressider in
Chicago, the owner of the factory in which I had been employed while
there. John had told me that Tressider had been his client during the
four years in which he practiced law in Chicago. I received an answer
about the middle of August. Mr. Tressider had been able to find out
only that John was born in the town of Hartberg in a certain year. This
was enough. I took leave of absence for a few days and went to
Hartberg, which, as you know, is about 140 miles from here. Three
days later I knew all that I wanted to know. John Siders was not the
man's real name, or, rather, it was only part of his name. His full name
was Theodor John Bellmann, and his mother was an Englishwoman
whose maiden name was Siders. His father was a county official who
died at an early age, leaving his widow and the boy in deepest poverty.
Mrs. Bellmann moved to G-- to give music lessons. Theodor went to
school there, then finally to college, and was an excellent pupil
everywhere. But one day it was discovered that he had been stealing
money from the banker in whose house he was serving as private tutor
to the latter's sons. A large sum of money was missing, and every

evidence pointed to young Bellmann as the thief. He denied
strenuously that he was guilty, but the District Judge (it was the present
Prosecuting Attorney Schmidt in G--) sentenced him. He spent eight
months in prison, during which time his mother died of grief at the
disgrace. There must have been something good in the boy, for he had
never forgotten that it was his guilt that struck down his only relative,
the mother who had worked so hard for him. He had atoned for this
crime of his youth, and during the years that have passed since then, he
had been an