"Commissioner Lange is his name, I believe," replied Miss Graumann.

"H'm!" Muller and the commissioner exchanged glances.

"I think we can venture to hear more of this," said the commissioner,
as if in answer to their unspoken thought. "Can you give us the
details now, Madam? Who is, or rather who was, this John Siders?"

"John Siders came to our village a little over a year ago," continued
Miss Graumann. "He came from Chicago; he told us, although he was
evidently a German by birth. He bought a nice little piece of
property, not far from our home, and settled down there. He was a
quiet man and made few friends, but he seemed to take to Albert and
came to see us frequently. Albert had spent some years in America,
in Chicago, and Siders liked to talk to him about things and people
there. But one day Siders suddenly sold his property and moved to G--.
Two weeks later he was found dead in his lodgings in the city,
murdered, and now--now they have accused Albert of the crime."

"On what grounds?--oh, I beg your pardon, sir; I did not mean--"

"That's all right, Muller," said the commissioner. "As you may
have to undertake the case, you might as well begin to do the
questioning now."

"They say"--Miss Graumann's voice quavered--"they say that Albert
was the last person known to have been in Siders' room; they say that
it was his revolver, found in the room. That is the dreadful part
of it--it was his revolver. He acknowledges it, but he did not
know, until the police showed it to him, that the weapon was not in