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Page 23
"How very clever you are, and how industrious," he exclaimed,
sitting down again and turning the top in his hands. It was covered
with gray varnish with tiny little yellow stripes painted on it.
Towards the lower point a little bit of the varnish had been broken
off and the reddish wood underneath was visible. The top was much
better constructed than the cheap toys sold in the village. It was
hollow and contained in its interior a mechanism started by a
pressure on the upper end. Once set in motion the little top spun
about the room for some time.
"Oh, isn't that pretty! Is this mechanism your own invention?"
asked Muller smiling. Gyuri watched the top with drawn brows and
murmured something about "childish foolishness."
"Yes, it is my own invention," said the patient, flattered. He
started out on an absolutely technical explanation of the mechanism
of tops in general and of his own in particular, an explanation so
lucid and so well put that no one would have believed the man
who was speaking was not in possession of the full powers of his
mind.
Muller listened very attentively with unfeigned interest.
"But you have made more important inventions than this, haven't
you?" he asked when the other stopped talking. Varna's eyes flashed
and his voice dropped to a tone of mystery as he answered: "Yes
indeed I have. But I did not have time to finish them. For I had
become some one else."
"Some one else?"
"Cardillac," whispered Varna, whose mania was now getting the best
of him again.
"Cardillac? You mean the notorious goldsmith who lived in Paris
200 years ago? Why, he's dead."
Varna's pale lips curled in a superior smile. "Oh, yes--that's
what people think, but it's a mistake. He is still alive--I am
--I have--although of course there isn't much opportunity here--"
Gyuri cleared his throat with a rasping noise.
"What were you saying, friend Cardillac?" asked Muller with a great
show of interest.
"I have done things here that nobody has found out. It gives me
great pleasure to see the authorities so helpless over the riddles
I have given them to solve. Oh, indeed, sir, you would never
imagine how stupid they are here."
"In other words, friend Cardillac, you are too clever for the
authorities here?
"Yes, that's it," said the insane man greatly flattered. He raised
his head proudly and smiled down at his guest. At this moment the
doctor came into the room and Gyuri walked forward to the group at
the window.
"You are making him nervous, sir," he said to Muller in a tone that
was almost harsh.
"You can leave that to me," answered the detective calmly. "And
you will please place yourself behind Mr. Varna's chair, not behind
mine. It is your eyes that are making him uneasy."
The attendant was alarmed and lost control of himself for a moment.
"Sir!" he exclaimed in an outburst.
"My name is Muller, in case you do not know it already, Joseph
Muller, detective. Gyuri Kovacz, you will do what I tell you to!
I am master here just now. Is it not so, doctor?"
"Yes, it is so," said the doctor.
"What does this mean?" murmured Gyuri, turning pale.
"It means that the best thing for you to do is to stand up against
that wall and fold your arms on your breast," said Muller firmly.
He took a revolver from his pocket and laid it beside him on the
turning-lathe. The young giant, cowed by the sight of the weapon,
obeyed the commands of this little man whom he could have easily
crushed with a single blow.
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