"You were arrested because you were the last person seen in the
company of the murdered man?"

"Exactly. Then I may go back and tell you something of my
connection with John Siders?"

"It would be the very best thing to do."

"I live in Grunau, as you doubtless know, and am the engineering
expert of large machine works there. My father before me held an
important position in the factory, and my family have always lived
in Grunau. I have traveled a great deal myself. I am forty-five
years old, a childless widower, and live with my old aunt, Miss
Babette Graumann, and my ward, Miss Eleonora Roemer, a young lady
of twenty-two." Muller looked up with a slight start of surprise,
but did not say anything. Graumann continued:

"A little over a year ago, John Siders, who signed himself as coming
from Chicago, bought a piece of property in our town and came to
live there. I made his acquaintance in the cafe and he seemed to
take a fancy to me. I also had spent several years in Chicago, and
we naturally came to speak of the place. We discovered that we had
several mutual acquaintances there, and enjoyed talking over the
old times. Otherwise I did not take particularly to the man, and
as I came to know him better I noticed that he never mentioned that
part of his life which lay back of the years in Chicago. I asked a
casual question once or twice as to his home and family, but he
evaded me every time, and would not give a direct answer. He was
evidently a German by birth and education, a man with university