But he did not leave the church as he intended. His last look at
the altar had showed him something that attracted his attention and
he walked up the three steps to examine it more closely.

What he had seen was something unusual about one of the silver
candlesticks. These candlesticks had three feet, and five of them
were placed in such a way that the two front feet were turned toward
the spectator. But on the end candlestick nearest Muller the single
foot projected out to the front of the altar. This candlestick
therefore had been set down hastily, not placed carefully in the
order of things as were the others.

And not only this. The heavy wax candle which was in the candlestick
was burned down about a finger's breadth more than the others, for
these were all exactly of a height. Muller bent still nearer to
the candlestick, but he saw that the dim light in the church was not
sufficient. He went to one of the smaller side altars, took a candle
from there, lit it with one of the matches that he found in his own
pocket and returned with the burning candle to the main altar. The
steps leading up to this altar were covered by a large rug with a
white ground and a pattern of flowers. Looking carefully at it the
detective saw a tiny brown spot, the mark of a burn, upon one of the
white surfaces. Beside it lay a half used match.

Walking around this carefully, Muller approached the candlestick
that interested him and holding up his light he examined every inch
of its surface. He found what he was looking for. There were dark
red spots between the rough edges of the silver ornamentation.

"Then the body is somewhere around here," thought the detective and