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Page 10
Graumann paused a moment and pressed his hand to his heart again.
His voice had grown weaker, and he breathed hard. Finally he
continued: "I commanded my ward to break off her engagement, as I
could not allow her to marry a man who was a freed convict. Siders
sold his property some few weeks after that and moved to G--.
Eleonora acquiesced in my commands, but she was very unhappy and
allowed me to see very little of her. Then came the events of the
evening of September 23rd, the events which have turned out so
terribly. I will try to tell you the story just as it happened,
so far as I am concerned. I had seen nothing of John since he left
this town. He had made several attempts before his departure for
G-- to change my opinion, and my decision as to his marriage to my
ward. But I let him see plainly that it was impossible for him to
enter our family with such a past behind him. He asserted his
innocence of the charges against him, and declared that he had been
unjustly accused and imprisoned. I am afraid that I was hard
towards him. I begin to understand now, as I never thought I
should, what it means to be accused of crime. I begin to realise
that it is possible for every evidence to point to a man who is
absolutely innocent of the deed in question. I begin to think now
that John may have been right, that possibly he also may have been
accused and sentenced on circumstantial evidence alone. I have
thought much, and I have learned much in these terrible days."
The prisoner paused again and sat brooding, his eyes looking out
into space. Muller respected his suffering and sat in equal
silence, until Graumann raised his eyes to his again. "Then came
the evening of the 23rd of September?"
"Yes, that evening--it's all like a dream to me." Graumann began
again. "John wrote me a letter asking me to come to see him on that
evening. I tore up the letter and threw it away--or perhaps, yes,
I remember now, I did not wish Eleonora to see that he had written
me. He asked me to come to see him, as he had something to say to
me, something of the greatest importance for us both. He asked me
not to mention to any one that I was to see him, as it would be
wiser no one should know that we were still in communication with
each other. There was a strain of nervous excitement visible in his
letter. I thought it better to go and see him as he requested; I
felt that I owed him some little reparation for having denied him
the great wish of his heart. It was my duty to make up to him in
other ways for what I had felt obliged to do. I knew him for a
nervous, high-strung man, overwrought by brooding for years on what
he called his wrongs, and I did not know what he might do if I
refused his request. It was not of myself I thought in this
connection, but of the girl at home who looked to me for protection.
"I had no fear for myself; it never occurred to me to think of
taking a weapon with me. How my revolver--and it is undoubtedly
my revolver, for there was a peculiar break in the silver
ornamentation on the handle which is easily recognisable--how this
revolver of mine got into his room, is more than I can say. Until
the Police Commissioner showed it to me two or three days ago, I
had no idea that it was not in the box in my study where it is
ordinarily kept." Graumann paused again and looked about him as
if searching for something. He rose and poured himself out a glass
of water. "Let me put some of this in it," said Muller. "It will
do you good." From a flask in his pocket he poured a few drops of
brandy into the water. Graumann drank it and nodded gratefully.
Then he took up his story again.
"I never discovered why Siders had sent for me. When I arrived at
the appointed time I found the door of the house closed. I was
obliged to ring several times before an old servant opened the door.
She seemed surprised that it had been locked. She said that the
door was always unlatched, and that Mr. Siders himself must have
closed it, contrary to all custom, for she had not done it, and
there was no one else in the house but the two of them. Siders
was waiting for me at the top of the stairs, calling down a noisy
welcome.
"When I asked him finally what it was so important that he wanted
to say to me, he evaded me and continued to chatter on about
commonplace things. Finally I insisted upon knowing why he had
wanted me to come, and he replied that the reason for it had already
been fulfilled, that he had nothing more to say, and that I could go
as soon as I wanted to. He appeared quite calm, but he must have
been very nervous. For as I stood by the desk, telling him what I
thought of his actions, he moved his hand hastily among the papers
there and upset the ink stand. I jumped back, but not before I had
received several large spots of ink on my trousers. He was profuse
in his apologies for the accident, and tried to take out the spots
with blotting paper. Then at last, when I insisted upon going, he
looked out to see whether there was still a light on the stairs, and
led me down to the door himself, standing there for some time
looking after me.
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