Muller smiled an embarrassed smile as he replied:

"Well ... I haven't found out anything yet except that he is dead,
and that he has been shot in the back. His pockets may tell us
something more."

"Yes, we can examine them at once," said the commissioner. "I
have been delaying that for I wanted you here; but I had no idea
that you would come so soon. I told them to fetch you if you were
awake, but doubted you would be, for I know you have had no sleep
for forty-eight hours."

"Oh, I can sleep, at least with one eye, when I'm on the chase,"
answered the detective. "So it's really only twenty-four hours,
you see." Muller had just returned from tracking down an
aristocratic swindler whom he had found finally in a little French
city and had brought back to a Viennese prison. He had returned
well along in the past night and Holzer knew that the tired man
would need his rest. Still he had sent for Muller, who lived near
the police station, for the girl's report had warned him that this
was a serious case. And in serious cases the police did not like
to do without Muller's help.

And as usual when his work called him, Muller was as wide awake as
if he had had a good night's sleep behind him. The interest of a
new case robbed him of every trace of fatigue. It was he alone - at
his own request - who raised the body and laid it on its back before
he stepped aside to make way for the doctor.

The physician opened the dead man's vest to see whether the bullet