its usual place in his study. They tell me that everything speaks
for his guilt, but I cannot believe it--I cannot. He says he is
innocent in spite of everything. I believe him. I brought him up,
sir; I was like his own mother to him. He never knew any other
mother. He never lied to me, not once, when he was a little boy,
and I don't believe he'd lie to me now, now that he's a man of
forty-five. He says he did not kill John Siders. Oh, I know, even
without his saying it, that he would not do such a thing."

"Can you tell us anything more about the murder itself?" questioned
Muller gently. "Is there any possibility of suicide? Or was there
a robbery?"

"They say it was no suicide, sir, and that there was a large sum of
money missing. But why should Albert take any one else's money?
He has money of his own, and he earns a good income besides--we
have all that we need. Oh, it is some dreadful mistake! There is
the newspaper account of the discovery of the body. Perhaps Mr.
Muller might like to read that." She pointed to a sheet of newspaper
on the desk. The commissioner handed it to Muller. It was an
evening paper, dated G--, September 24th, and it gave an elaborate
account, in provincial journalese, of the discovery that morning of
the body of John Siders, evidently murdered, in his lodgings. The
main facts to be gathered from the long-winded story were as follows:

John Siders had rented the rooms in which he met his death about
ten days before, paying a month's rent in advance. The lodgings
consisted of two rooms in a little house in a quiet street. It was
a street of simple two-story, one and two family dwellings, occupied
by artisans and small tradespeople. There were many open spaces,