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Page 13
"That is good. Now I would like to question the servants."
Muller had already started for the door, then he turned back into
the room and pointing toward the second door he asked: "Is that
door locked?"
"Yes," answered the Count. "I found it locked when I examined it
myself a short time ago."
"It was locked on the inside?"
"Yes, locked on the inside."
"Very well. Then we have nothing more to do here for the time
being. Let us go back into the dining-room."
The men returned to the dining-room, Muller last, for he stopped
to lock the door of the study and put the key in his pocket. Then
he began his examination of the servants.
The old housekeeper, who, as usual, was the first to rise in the
household, had also, as usual, rung the bell to waken the other
servants. Then when Liska came downstairs she had sent her up
to the pastor's room. His bedroom was to the right of the
dining-room. Liska had, as usual, knocked on the door exactly at
seven o'clock and continued knocking for some few minutes without
receiving any answer. Slightly alarmed, the girl had gone back
and told the housekeeper that the pastor did not answer.
Then the old woman asked the coachman to go up and see if anything
was the matter with the reverend gentleman. The man returned in
a few moments, pale and trembling in every limb and apparently
struck dumb by fright. He motioned the women to follow him, and
all three crept up the stairs. The coachman led them first to the
pastor's bed, which was untouched, and then to the pool of blood
in his study. The sight of the latter frightened the servants so
much that they did not notice at first that there was no sign of
the pastor himself, whom they now knew must have been murdered.
When they finally came to themselves sufficiently to take some
action, the man hurried off to call the magistrate, and Liska ran
to the asylum to fetch the old doctor; the pastor's intimate friend.
The aged housekeeper, trembling in fear, crept back to her own room
and sat there waiting the return of the others.
This was the story of the early morning as told by the three
servants, who had already given their report in much the same words
to the Count on his arrival and also to the magistrate. There was
no reason to doubt the words of either the old housekeeper or of
Janos, the coachman, who had served for more than twenty years in
the rectory and whose fidelity was known. The girl Liska was
scarcely eighteen, and her round childish face and big eyes dimmed
with tears, corroborated her story. When they had told Muller all
they knew, the detective sat stroking, his chin, and looking
thoughtfully at the floor. Then he raised his head and said, in a
tone of calm friendliness: "Well, good friends, this will do for
to-night. Now, if you will kindly give me a bite to eat and a
glass of some light wine, I'd be very thankful. I have had no
food since early this morning."
The housekeeper and the maid disappeared, and Janos went to the
stable to harness the Count's trap.
The magnate turned to the detective. "I thank you once more that
you have come to us. I appreciate it greatly that a stranger to
our part of the country, like yourself, should give his time and
strength to this problem of our obscure little village."
"There is nothing else calling me, sir," answered Muller. "And the
Budapest police will explain to headquarters at Vienna if I do not
return at once."
"Do you understand our tongue sufficiently to deal with these people
here?"
"Oh, yes; there will be no difficulty about that. I have hunted
criminals in Hungary before. And a case of this kind does not
usually call for disguises in which any accent would betray one."
"It is a strange profession," said the doctor.
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