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Page 14
"No, I do not know of any enemies, or even of any friends he had
there. When the terrible thing happened that clouded his past,
when he had regained his freedom, after his term of imprisonment,
there was no one left whom he cared to see again. He does not seem
to have borne any malice towards the banker who accused him of the
theft. The evidence was so strong against him that he felt the
suspicion was justified. But there was hatred in his heart for one
man, for the Justice who sentenced him, Justice Schmidt, who is now
Attorney General in G--."
"The man who, in the name of the State, will conduct this case?"
asked Muller quickly.
"Yes, I believe it is so. Is it not an irony that this man, the
only one whom John really hated, should be the one to avenge him
now?"
"H'm! yes. But did you know of any friends in G--?"
"No, none at all."
"No friends whom he might have made while he was in America and
then met again in Germany?"
"No, he never spoke of any such to me. He told me that he made few
friends. He did not seek them for he was afraid that they might
find out what had happened and turn from him. He was morbidly
sensitive and could not bear the disappointment."
"Why did he return to Germany?"
"He was lonely and wanted to come home again. He had made money
in America--John was very clever and highly educated--but his
heart longed for his own tongue and his own people."
Muller took a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "Do you know
this handwriting?"
Miss Roemer read the few lines hastily and her voice trembled as
she said: "This is John's handwriting. I know it well. This is
the letter that was found on the table?"
"Yes, this letter appears to be the last he had written in life.
Do you know to whom it could have been written? The envelope, as
I suppose you know from the newspaper reports, was not addressed.
Do you know of any friends with whom he could have been on terms
of sufficient intimacy to write such a letter? Do you know what
these plans for the future could have been? It would certainly be
natural that he should have spoken to you first about them."
"No; I cannot understand this letter at all," replied the girl. "I
have thought of it frequently these terrible days. I have wondered
why it was that if he had friends in the city, he did not speak to
me of them. He repeatedly told me that he had no friends there at
all, that his life should begin anew after we were married."
"And did he have any particular plans, in a business way, perhaps?"
"No; he had a comfortable little income and need have no fear for
the future. John was, of course, too young a man to settle down
and do nothing. But the only definite plans he had made were that
we should travel a little at first, and then he would look about
him for a congenial occupation. I always thought it likely he
would resume a law practice somewhere. I cannot understand in the
slightest what the plans are to which the letter referred."
"And do you think, from what you know of his state of mind when
you saw him last, that he would be likely so soon to be planning
pleasures like this?"
"No, no indeed! John was terribly crushed when my guardian insisted
on breaking off our engagement. Until my twenty-fourth birthday I
am still bound to do as my guardian says, you know. John's life and
early misfortune made him, as I have already said, morbidly sensitive
and the thought that it would be a bar to anything we might plan in
the future, had rendered him so depressed that--and it was not the
least of my anxieties and my troubles--that I feared ... I feared
anything might happen."
"You feared he might take his own life, do you mean?"
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