THE CASE OF THE POCKET DIARY FOUND IN THE SNOW

by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner



CHAPTER I

THE DISCOVERY IN THE SNOW


A quiet winter evening had sunk down upon the great city. The
clock in the old clumsy church steeple of the factory district had
not yet struck eight, when the side door of one of the large
buildings opened and a man came out into the silent street.

It was Ludwig Amster, one of the working-men in the factory,
starting on his homeward way. It was not a pleasant road, this
street along the edge of the city. The town showed itself from
its most disagreeable side here, with malodorous factories,
rickety tenements, untidy open stretches and dumping grounds
offensive both to eye and nostril.

Even by day the street that Amster took was empty; by night it
was absolutely quiet and dark, as dark as were the thoughts of the
solitary man. He walked along, brooding over his troubles.
Scarcely an hour before he had been discharged from the factory
because of his refusal to submit to the injustice of his foreman.