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Page 11
"I was slightly alarmed as well as angry at his actions. I believe
that he could not have been quite in his right mind, that the strain
of nervousness which was apparent in his nature had really made him
ill. For I remember several peculiar incidents of my visit to him.
One of these was that he almost insisted upon my taking away with me,
ostensibly to take care of them, several valuable pieces of jewelry
which he possessed. He seemed almost offended when I refused to do
anything of the kind. Then, as I parted from him at the door, not
in a very good humour I will acknowledge, he said to me: 'You will
think of me very often in the future--more often than you would
believe now!'
"This is all the truth, and nothing but the truth, about my visit
to John Siders on the evening of September 23rd. As it had been
his wish I said nothing to the ladies at home, or to any one else
about the occurrence. And as I have told you, I destroyed his
letter asking me to come to him.
"The following day about noon, the Commissioner of Police from
G-- called at my office in the factory, and informed me bluntly that
John Siders had been found shot dead in his lodgings that morning.
I was naturally shocked, as one would be at such news, in spite of
the fact that I had parted from the man in anger, and that I had no
reason to be particularly fond of him. What shocked me most of all
was the sudden thought that John had taken his own life. It was a
perfectly natural thought when I considered his nervousness, and his
peculiar actions of the evening before. I believe I exclaimed,
'It was a suicide!' almost without realising that I was doing so.
The commissioner looked at me sharply and said that suicide was out
of the question, that it was an evident case of murder. He
questioned me as to Siders' affairs, of which I told only what every
one here in the village knew. I did not consider it incumbent upon
me to disclose to the police the disgrace of the man's early life.
I had been obliged to hurt him cruelly enough because of that, and
I saw no necessity for blackening his name, now that he was dead.
Also, as according to what the commissioner said, it was a case of
murder for robbery, I did not wish to go into any details of our
connection with Siders that would cause the name of my ward to be
mentioned. After a few more questions the commissioner left me.
I was busy all the afternoon, and did not return to my home until
later than usual. I found my aunt somewhat worried because Miss
Roemer had left the house immediately after our early dinner, and
had not yet returned. We both knew the girl to be still grieving
over her broken engagement, and we dreaded the effect this last
dreadful news might have on her. We supposed, however, that she
had gone to spend the afternoon with a friend, and were rather
glad to be spared the necessity of telling her at once what had
happened. I had scarcely finished my supper, when the door bell
rang, and to my astonishment the Mayor of Grunau was announced,
accompanied by the same Police Commissioner who had visited me
in my office that morning. The Mayor was an old friend of mine
and his deeply grave face showed me that something serious had
occurred. It was indeed serious! and for some minutes I could
not grasp the meaning of the commissioner's questions. Finally I
realised with a tremendous shock that I--I myself was under
suspicion of the murder of John Siders. The description given by
the old servant of the man who had visited Siders the evening
before, the very clothes that I wore, my hat and the trousers
spotted by the purple ink, led to my identification as this
mysterious visitor. The servant had let me in but she had not
seen me go out.
"Then I discovered--when confronted suddenly with my own revolver
which had been found on the floor of the room, some distance from
the body of the dead man, that this same revolver had been identified
as mine by my ward, Eleonora Roemer, who had been to the police
station at G-- in the early afternoon hours. Some impulse of loyalty
to her dead lover, some foolish feminine fear that I might have
spoken against him in my earlier interviews with the commissioner
had driven the girl to this step. A few questions sufficed to draw
from her the story of her secret engagement, of its ending, and of
my quarrel with John. I will say for her that I am certain she did
not realise that all these things were calculated to cast suspicion
on me. The poor girl is too unused to the ways of police courts, to
the devious ways of the law, to realise what she was doing. The
sight of my revolver broke her down completely and she acknowledged
that it was mine. That is all. Except that I was arrested and
brought here as you see. I told the commissioner the story of my
visit to John Siders exactly as I told it to you, but it was plain
to be seen that he did not believe me. It is plain to be seen also,
that he is firmly convinced of my guilt and that he is greatly
satisfied with himself at having traced the criminal so soon."
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