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Page 26
"And you, quite alone, could carry the pastor's body out of his
room?"
"I am very strong."
"How did you arrange it that there should be no traces of blood to
betray you?"
"I waited until the body had stiffened, then I tied up the wound and
carried him down into the crypt."
"Why did you do that?"
"I didn't want to leave him in that horrid pool of blood."
"You were sorry for him then?"
"Why, yes; it looked so horrid to see him lying there--and he had
always been so good to me. He was so good to me that very evening
when I entered his study.
"He recognised you?
"Certainly. He sprang up from his chair when I came in through the
passage from the church. I saw that he was startled, but he smiled
at me and reached out his hand to me and said: 'What brings you here,
my dear Cardillac?' And then I struck. I wanted him to die with
that smile on his lips. It is beautiful to see a man die smiling,
it shows that he has not been afraid of death. He was dead at once.
I always kill that way--I know just how to strike and where. I
killed more than a hundred people years ago in Paris, and I didn't
leave one of them the time for even a sigh. I was renowned for
that--I had a kind heart and a sure hand."
Muller interrupted the dreadful imaginings of the madman with a
question. "You got into the house through the crypt?"
"Yes, through the crypt. I found the window one night when I was
prowling around in the churchyard. When I knew that the pastor was
to be the next, I cut through the window bars. Gyuri went into the
church one day when nobody was there and found out that it was easy
to lift the stone over the entrance to the crypt. He also learned
that the doors from the church to the vestry were never locked. I
knew how to find the passageway, because I had been through it
several times on my visits to the rectory. But it was a mere chance
that the door into the pastor's study was unlocked."
"A chance that cost the life of a worthy man," said the detective
gravely.
Varna nodded sadly. "But he didn't suffer, he was dead at once."
"And now tell me what this top was doing there?" No. 302 looked at
the detective in great surprise, and then laid his hand on the
latter's arm. "How did you know that I had the top there?" he asked
with a show of interest.
"I found its traces in the room, and it was those traces that led
me here to you," answered Muller.
"How strange!" remarked Varna. "Are you like shepherd Janci that
you can see the things others don't see?"
"No, I have not Janci's gift. It would be a great comfort to me
and a help to the others perhaps if I had. I can only see things
after they have happened."
"But you can see more than others--the others did not see the
traces of the top?"
"My business is to see more than others see," said Muller. "But
you have not told me yet what the top was doing there. Why did you
take a toy like that with you when you went out on such an errand?"
"It was in my pocket by chance. When I reached for my handkerchief
to quench the flow of blood the top came out with it. I must have
touched the spring without knowing it, for the top began to spin.
I stood still and watched it, then I ran after it. It spun around
the room and finally came back to the body. So did I. The pastor
was quite still and dead by that time."
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