The woman came back at this moment and said to Muller, "Come with
me, please. Berner, you are to stay here until the gentleman goes
out again."

Muller followed her through several rooms into a large bed-chamber
where he found an elderly man, very evidently ill, lying in bed.

"Who are you?" asked the sick man, raising his head from the pillow.
The woman had gone out and closed the door behind her.

"My name is Muller, police detective. Here are my credentials."

Fellner glanced hastily at the paper. "Why does the police send
to me?"

"It concerns your ward."

Fellner sat upright in bed now. He leaned over towards his visitor
as he said, pointing to a letter on the table beside his bed, "Asta's
overseer writes me from her estate that she left home on the 18th of
November to visit me. She should have reached here on the evening
of the 18th, and she has not arrived yet. I did not receive this
letter until to-day."

"Did you expect the young lady?"

"I knew only that she would arrive sometime before the third of
December. That date is her twenty-fourth birthday and she was to
celebrate it here."