The Case of the Lamp That Went Out

by Auguste Groner

  CHAPTER VIII. JOHANN KNOLL REMEMBERS SOMETHING ELSE

  Muller's goal was the prison where Johann Knoll was awaiting his fate.The detective had permission to see the man as often as he wished to.Knoll had been proven a thief, but the accusation of murder againsthim had not been strengthened by anything but the most superficialcircumstantial evidence, therefore it was necessary that Muller shouldtalk with him in the hope of discovering something more definite.

  Knoll lay asleep on his cot as the detective and the warder entered thecell. Muller motioned the attendant to leave him alone with the prisonerand he stood beside the cot looking down at the man. The face onthe hard pillow was not a very pleasant one to look at. The skin wasroughened and swollen and had that brown-purple tinge which comesfrom being constantly in the open air, and from habitual drinking. Theweather-beaten look may be seen often in the faces of men whose honestwork keeps them out of doors; but this man had not earned his colouringhonestly, for he was one of the sort who worked only from time to timewhen it was absolutely necessary and there was no other way of gettinga penny. His hands proved this, for although soiled and grimy they hadsoft, slender fingers which showed no signs of a life of toil. But evena man who has spent forty years in useless idling need not be all bad.There must have been some good left in this man or he could not havelain there so quietly, breathing easily, wrapped in a slumber asundisturbed as that of a child. It did not seem possible that any mancould lie there like that with the guilt of murder on his conscience, oreven with the knowledge in his soul that he had plundered a corpse.

  Muller had never believed the first to be the case, but he had thoughtit possible that Knoll knew perfectly well that it was a lifeless bodyhe was robbing. He had believed it at least until the moment when hestood looking down at the sleeping tramp. Now, with the deep knowledgeof the human heart which was his by instinct and which his professionhad increased a thousand-fold, Muller knew that this man before himhad no heavy crime upon his conscience--that it was really as he hadsaid--that he had taken the watch and purse from one whom he believedto be intoxicated only. Of course it was not a very commendable deed forwhich the tramp was now in prison, but it was slight in comparison tothe crimes of which he was suspected.

  Muller bent lower over the unconscious form and was surprised to see agentle smile spread over the face before him. It brightened andchanged the coarse rough face and gave it for a moment a look of almostchild-like innocence. Somewhere within the coarsened soul there must bea spot of brightness from which such a smile could come.

  But the face grew ugly again as Knoll opened his eyes and looked up. Heshook off the clouds of slumber as he felt Muller's hand on his shoulderand raised himself to a sitting position, grumbling: "Can't I have anyrest? Are they going to question me again? I'm getting tired of this.I've said everything I know anyhow."

  "Perhaps not everything. Perhaps you will answer a few of my questionswhen I tell you that I believe the story you told us yesterday, and thatI want to be your friend and help you."

  Knoll's little eyes glanced up without embarrassment at the manwho spoke to him. They were sharp eyes and had a certain spark ofintelligence in them. Muller had noticed that yesterday, and he sawit again now. But he saw also the gleam of distrust in these eyes, adistrust which found expression in Knoll's next words. "You think youcan catch me with your good words, but you're makin' a mistake. I've gotnothin' new to say. And you needn't think that you can blind me, I knowyou're one of the police, and I'm not going to say anything at all."

  "Just as you like. I was trying to help you, I believe I really couldhelp you. I have just come from Hietzing--but of course if you don'twant to talk to me--" Muller shrugged his shoulders and turned towardthe door.

  But before he reached it Knoll stood at his side. "You really mean tohelp me?" he gasped.

  "I do," said the detective calmly.

  "Then swear, on your mother's soul--or is your mother still alive?"

  "No, she has been dead some time."

  "Well, then, will you swear it?"

  "Would you believe an oath like that?"

  "Why shouldn't I?"

  "With the life you've been leading?"

  "My life's no worse than a lot of others. Stealing those things onMonday was the worst thing I've done yet. Will you swear?"

  "Is it something so very important you have to tell me?"

  "No, I ain't got nothin' at all new to tell you. But I'd just liketo know--in this black hole I've got into--I'd just like to know thatthere's one human being who means well with me--I'd like to knowthat there's one man in the world who don't think I'm quitegood-for-nothin'."

  The tramp covered his face with his hands and gave a heart-rending sob.Deep pity moved the detective's breast. He led Knoll back to his cot,and put both hands on his shoulders, saying gravely: "I believe thatthis theft was the worst thing you have done. By my mother's salvation,Knoll, I believe your words and I will try to help you."

  Knoll raised his head, looking up at Muller with a glance of unspeakablegratitude. With trembling lips he kissed the hand which a moment beforehad pressed kindly on his shoulder, clinging fast to it as if he couldnot bear to let it go. Muller was almost embarrassed. "Oh, come now,Knoll, don't be foolish. Pull yourself together and answer my questionscarefully, for I am asking you these questions more for your own sakethan for anything else."

  The tramp nodded and wiped the tears from his face. He looked almosthappy again, and there was a softness in his eyes that showed there wassomething in the man which might be saved and which was worth saving.

  Muller sat beside him on the cot and began: "There was one mistake inyour story yesterday. I want you to think it over carefully. You saidthat you saw first a woman and then a man going through the neighbouringgarden. I believe that one or both of these people is the criminalfor whom we are looking. Therefore, I want you to try and remembereverything that you can connect with them, every slightest detail.Anything that you can tell us may be of the greatest importance.Therefore, think very carefully."

  Knoll sat still a few moments, evidently trying hard to put his hazyrecollections into useful form and shape. But it was also evident thatorderly thinking was an unusual work for him, and he found it almost toodifficult. "I guess you better ask me questions, maybe that'll go," hesaid after a pause.

  Then Muller began to question. With his usual thoroughness he began atthe very beginning: "When was it that you climbed the fence to get intothe shed?"

  "It just struck nine o'clock when I put my foot on the lowest bar."

  "Are you sure of that?"

  "Quite sure. I counted every stroke. You see, I wanted to know how longthe night was going to be, seein' I'd have to sleep in that shed. I wasin the garden just exactly an hour. I came out of the shed as it struckten and it wasn't but a few minutes before I was in the street again."

  "And when was it that you saw the woman in the garden next door?"

  "H'm, I don't just know when that was. I'd been in on the bench quite awhile."

  "And the man? When did you see the man?"

  "He came past a few minutes after the woman had gone towards the littlehouse in the garden."

  "Ah! there you see, that's where you made your mistake. It is more thanlikely that these two did not go to the little house, but that they wentsomewhere else. Did they walk slowly and quietly?"

  "Not a bit of it. They ran almost... Went past as quick as a bat in thenight."

  "Then they both appeared to be in a hurry?"

  "Yes indeed they did."

  "Ah, ha, you see! Now when any one's in a hurry he doesn't go thelongest way round, as a rule. And it would have been the longest wayround for these two people to go from the big house to the gardener'scottage--for the little house you saw was the gardener's cottage. Thereis tall thick hedge that starts from the main building and goes rightdown through the garden, quite a distance past the gardener's cottage.The vegetable garden is on the left side of this hedge and in the middleof the v
egetable garden is the gardener's cottage. But you could haveseen the man and the woman only because they passed down the right sideof the hedge, and this would have given them a detour of fifty paces ormore to reach the gardener's house. Nov do you think that two peoplewho were very much in a hurry would have gone down the right side of thehedge, to reach a place which they could have gotten to much quicker onthe left side?"

  "No, that would have been a fool thing to do."

  "And you are quite sure that these people were in a hurry?"

  "That's dead sure. I scarcely saw them before they'd gone again."

  "And you didn't see them come back?"

  "No, at least I didn't pay any further attention to them. When I thoughtit wouldn't be any good to look about in there I turned around and dozedoff."

  "And it was during this dozing that you thought you heard the shot?"

  "Yes, sir, that's right."

  "And you didn't notice anything else? You didn't hear anything else."

  "No, nothin' at all, there was so much noise anyway. There was a highwind that night and the trees were rattling and creaking."

  "And you didn't see anything else, anything that attracted yourattention?"

  "No, nothing--" Knoll did not finish his sentence, but began anotherinstead. He had suddenly remembered something which had seemed to him ofno importance before. "There was a light that went out suddenly."

  "Where?"

  "In the side of the house that I could see from my place. There was alamp in the last window of the second story, a lamp with a red shade.That lamp went out all at once."

  "Was the window open?"

  "Yes."

  "There was a strong wind that night, might not the wind have blown thelamp out?"

  "No, that wasn't it," said Knoll, rising hastily.

  "Well, how was it?" asked Muller calmly.

  "A hand put out the lamp."

  "Whose hand?"

  "I couldn't see that. The light was so low on account of the shade thatI couldn't see the person who stood there."

  "And you don't know whether it was a man or a woman?"

  "No, I just saw a hand, more like a shadow it was."

  "Well, it doesn't matter much anyway. It was after nine o'clock and manypeople go to bed about that time," said Muller, who did not see muchvalue in this incident.

  But Knoll shook his head. "The person who put out that light didn't goto bed, at least not right away," he said eagerly. "I looked over aftera while to the place where the red light was and I saw something else."

  "Well, what was it you saw?"

  "The window had been closed."

  "Who closed it? Didn't you see the person that time? The moonlight layfull on the house."

  "Yes, when there weren't any clouds. But there was a heavy cloud overthe moon just then and when it came out again the window was shut andthere was a white curtain drawn in front of it."

  "How could you see that?"

  "I could see it when the lamp was lit again."

  "Then the lamp was lit again?"

  "Yes, I could see the red light behind the curtain."

  "And what happened then?"

  "Nothing more then, except that the man went through the garden."

  Muller rose now and took up his hat. He was evidently excited and Knolllooked at him uneasily. "You're goin' already?" he asked.

  "Yes, I have a great deal to do to-day," replied the detective andnodded to the prisoner as he knocked on the door. "I am glad youremembered that," he added, "it will be of use to us, I think."

  The warder opened the door, let Muller out, and the heavy iron portalclanged again between Knoll and freedom.

  Muller was quite satisfied with the result of his visit to the accused.He hurried to the nearest cab stand and entered one of the carriageswaiting there. He gave the driver Mrs. Klingmayer's address. It wasabout two o'clock in the afternoon now and Muller had had nothing to eatyet. But he was quite unaware of the fact as his mind was so busy thatno mere physical sensation could divert his attention for a moment.Muller never seemed to need sleep or food when he was on the trail,particularly not in the fascinating first stages of the case when itwas his imagination alone, catching at trifles unnoticed by others,combining them in masterly fashion to an ordered whole, that first ledthe seekers to the truth. Now he went over once more all the littleapparently trivial incidents that had caused him first to watch theThorne household and then had drawn his attention, and his suspicion, toAdele Bernauer. It was the broken willow twig that had first drawn hisattention to the old garden next the Thorne property. This twig, thisgarden, and perhaps some one who could reach his home again, unseen andunendangered through this garden--might not this have something to dowith the murder?

  The breaking of the twig was already explained. It was Johann Knollwho had stepped on it. But he had not climbed the wall at all, hadonly crept along it looking for a night's shelter. And there was noconnection between Knoll and the people who lived in the Thorne house.Muller had not the slightest doubt that the tramp had told the entiretruth that day and the day preceding.

  Then the detective's mind went back to the happenings of Tuesdaymorning. The little twig had first drawn his attention to the Thorneestate and the people who lived there. He had seen the departure ofthe young couple and had passed the house again that afternoon and thefollowing day, drawn to it as if by a magnet. He had not been ablethen to explain what it was that attracted him; there had been nothingdefinite in his mind as he strolled past the old mansion. But hisrepeated appearance had been noticed by some one--by one persononly--the housekeeper. Why should she have noticed it? Had she anyreason for believing that she might be watched? People with an uneasyconscience are very apt to connect even perfectly natural trivialcircumstances with their own doings. Adele Bernauer had evidentlyconnected Muller's repeated passing with something that concernedherself even before the detective had thought of her at all.

  Muller had not noticed her until he had seen her peculiar conduct thatvery morning. When he heard Franz's words and saw how disturbed thewoman was, he asked himself: "Why did this woman want to be shown thespot of the murder? Didn't she know that place, living so near it, aswell as any of the many who stood there staring in morbid curiosity?Did she ask to have it shown her that the others might believe she hadnothing whatever to do with the occurrences that had happened there? Orwas she drawn thither by that queer attraction that brings the criminalback to the scene of his crime?"

  The sudden vision of Mrs. Bernauer's head at the garden gate, and itsequally sudden disappearance had attracted Muller's attention and histhoughts to the woman. What he had been able to learn about her hadincreased his suspicions and her involuntary exclamation when she methim face to face in the house had proved beyond a doubt that there wassomething on her mind. His open accusation, her demeanour, and finallyher swoon, were all links in the chain of evidence that this woman knewsomething about the murder in the quiet lane.

  With this suspicion in his mind what Muller had learned from Knollwas of great value to him, at all events of great interest. Was it thehousekeeper who had put out the light? For now Muller did not doubt fora moment that this sudden extinguishing of the lamp was a signal. Hebelieved that Knoll had seen clearly and that he had told truly what hehad seen. A lamp that is blown out by the wind flickers uneasily beforegoing out. A sudden extinguishing of the light means human agency. Andthe lamp was lit again a few moments afterward and burned on steadilyas before. A short time after the lamp had been put out the man had beenseen going through the garden. And it could not have been much laterbefore the shot was heard. This shot had been fired between the hoursof nine and ten, for it was during this hour only that Knoll was in thegarden house and heard the shot. But it was not necessary to depend uponthe tramp's evidence alone to determine the exact hour of the shot. Itmust have been before half past nine, or otherwise the janitor of No.1,who came home at that hour and lay awake so long, would undoubtedlyhave heard a shot fired so near his d
omicile, in spite of the noiseoccasioned by the high wind. There would have been sufficient timefor Mrs. Bernauer to have reached the place of the murder between theputting out of the lamp and the firing of the shot. But perhaps she mayhave rested quietly in her room; she may have been only the inciter orthe accomplice of the deed. But at all events, she knew something aboutit, she was in some way connected with it.

  Muller drew a deep breath. He felt much easier now that he had arrangedhis thoughts and marshalled in orderly array all the facts he hadalready gathered. There was nothing to do now but to follow up a givenpath step by step and he could no longer reproach himself that he mighthave cast suspicion on an innocent soul. No, his bearing towards Mrs.Bernauer had not been sheer brutality. His instinct, which had led himso unerringly so many times, had again shown him the right way when hehad thrust the accusation in her face.

  Now that his mind was easier he realised that he was very hungry. Hedrove to a restaurant and ordered a hasty meal.

  "Beer, sir?" asked the waiter for the third time.

  "No," answered Muller, also for the third time.

  "Then you'll take wine, sir?" asked the insistent Ganymede.

  "Oh, go to the devil! When I want anything I'll ask for it," growled thedetective, this time effectively scaring the waiter. It did not oftenhappen that a customer refused drinks, but then there were not manycustomers who needed as clear a head as Muller knew he would have tohave to-day. Always a light drinker, it was one of his rules never totouch a drop of liquor during this first stage of the mental working outof any new problem which presented itself. But soft-hearted as he was,he repented of his irritation a moment later and soothed the waiter'swounded feelings by a rich tip. The boy ran out to open the cab door forhis strange customer and looked after him, wondering whether the man wasa cranky millionaire or merely a poet. For Joseph Muller, by name and byreputation one of the best known men in Vienna, was by sight unknownto all except the few with whom he had to do on the police force. Hisappearance, in every way inconspicuous, and the fact that he neversought acquaintance with any one, was indeed of the greatest possibleassistance to him in his work. Many of those who saw him several timesin a day would pass him or look him full in the face without recognisinghim. It was only, as in the case of Mrs. Bernauer, the guilty consciencethat remembered face and figure of this quiet-looking man who was one ofthe most-feared servants of the law in Austria.