As he was alone in his compartment, Muller gave way to his
excitement, sometimes even murmuring half-aloud the thoughts that
rushed through his brain. "Yes, I am convinced of it, but can I
find the proofs?" the words came again and again, and in spite of
the comfortable warmth in the compartment, in spite of his tired
and half-frozen condition, he could not sleep.

He reached the capital at midnight and took a room in a small hotel
in a quiet street. When he went out next morning, the servants
looked after him with suspicion, as in their opinion a man who
spent most of the night pacing up and down his room must surely
have a guilty conscience.

Muller went to police headquarters and looked through the arrivals
at the hotels on the 21st of November. The burial of Mrs. Kniepp
had taken place on the 20th. Muller soon found the name he was
looking for, "Forest Councillor Leo Kniepp," in the list of guests
at the Hotel Imperial. The detective went at once to the Hotel
Imperial, where he was already well known. It cost him little time
and trouble to discover what he wished to know, the reason for the
Councillor's visit to the capital.

Kniepp had asked for the address of a goldsmith, and had been
directed to one of the shops which had the best reputation in the
city. He had been in the capital altogether for about twenty-four
hours. He had the manner and appearance of a man suffering under
some terrible blow.

Muller himself was deep in thought as he entered the train to