You said that you saw first a woman and then a man going through the neighbouring garden. I believe that one or both of these people is the criminal for whom we are looking. Therefore, I want you to try and remember everything that you can connect with them, every slightest detail. Anything that you can tell us may be of the greatest importance. Therefore, think very carefully."Knoll sat still a few moments, evidently trying hard to put his hazy recollections into useful form and shape. But it was also evident that orderly thinking was an unusual work for him, and he found it almost too difficult. "I guess you 'better ask me questions, maybe that'll go," he said after a pause.
Then Muller began to question. With his usual thoroughness he began at the very beginning: "When was it that you climbed the fence to get into the shed?""It just struck nine o'clock when I put my foot on the lowest bar.""Are you sure of that?"
"Quite sure. I counted every stroke. You see, I wanted to know how long the night was going to be, seein' I'd have to sleep in that shed. I was in the garden just exactly an hour. I came out of the shed as it struck ten and it wasn't but a few minutes before I was in the street again.""And when was it that you saw the woman in the garden next door?""H'm, I don't just know when that was. I'd been in on the bench quite a while.""And the man? When did you see the man?"
"He came past a few minutes after the woman had gone towards the little house in the garden.""Ah! there you see, that's where you made your mistake. It is more than likely that these two did not go to the little house, but that they went somewhere else. Did they walk slowly and quietly?""Not a bit of it. They ran almost ... Went past as quick as a bat in the night.""Then they both appeared to be in a hurry?"
"Yes indeed they did."
"Ah, ha, you see! Now when any one's in a hurry he doesn't go the longest way round, as a rule. And it would have been the longest way round for these two people to go from the big house to the gardener's cottage - for the little house you saw was the gardener's cottage. There is tall thick hedge that starts from the main building and goes right down through the garden, quite a distance past the gardener's cottage. The vegetable garden is on the left side of this hedge and in the middle of the vegetable garden is the gardener's cottage. But you could have seen the man and the woman only because they passed down the right side of the hedge, and this would have given them a detour of fifty paces or more to reach the gardener's house. Nov do you think that two people who were very much in a hurry would have gone down the right side of the hedge, to reach a place which they could have gotten to much quicker on the left side?""No, that would have been a fool thing to do.""And you are quite sun that these people were in a hurry?""That's dead sure. I scarcely saw them before they'd gone again.""And you didn't see then come hack?"
"No, at least I didn't pay any further attention to them. When Ithought it wouldn't be any good to look about in there I turned around and dozed off.""And it was during this dozing that you thought you heard the shot?"Yes, sir, that's right."
"And you didn't notice anything else? You didn't hear anything else.""No, nothin' at all, there was so much noise anyway. There was a high wind that night and the trees were rattling and creaking.""And you didn't see anything else, anything that attracted your attention?""No, nothing - " Knoll did not finish his sentence, but began another instead. He had suddenly remembered something which had seemed to him of no importance before. "There was a light that went out suddenly.""Where?"
"In the side of the house that I could see from my place. There was a lamp in the last window of the second story, a lamp with a red shade. That lamp went out all at once.""Was the window open?"
"Yes."
"There was a strong wind that night, might not the wind have blown the lamp out?""No, that wasn't it," said Knoll, rising hastily.
"Well, how was it?" asked Muller calmly.
"A hand put out the lamp."
"Whose hand?"
"I couldn't see that. The light was so low on account of the shade that I couldn't see the person who stood there.""And you don't know whether it was a man or a woman?""No, I just saw a hand, more like a shadow it was.""Well, it doesn't matter much anyway. It was after nine o'clock and many people go to bed about that time," said Muller, who did not see much value in this incident.
But Knoll shook his head. "The person who put out that light didn't go to bed, at least not right away," he said eagerly. "I looked over after a while to the place where the red light was and I saw something else.""Well, what was it you saw?"
"The window had been closed."
"Who closed it? Didn't you see the person that time? The moonlight lay full on the house.""Yes, when there weren't any clouds. But there was a heavy cloud over the moon just then and when it came out again the window was shut and there was a white curtain drawn in front of it.""How could you see that?"
"I could see it when the lamp was lit again.""Then the lamp was lit again?"
"Yes, I could see the red light behind the curtain.""And what happened then?"
"Nothing more then, except that the man went through the garden."Muller rose now and took up his hat. He was evidently excited and Knoll looked at him uneasily. "You're goin' already?" he asked.
"Yes, I have a great deal to do to-day," replied the detective and nodded to the prisoner as he knocked on the door. "I am glad you remembered that," he added, "it will be of use to us, I think."The warder opened the door, let Muller out, and the heavy iron portal clanged again between Knoll and freedom.
