a nodded. "His eyes are all glassy and I saw blood on his back."

"Well, you're evidently very much frightened, and I suppose you don't
want to go down there again. I'll look into the matter, if you will go
to the police station and make the announcement. Will you do it?"

"Yes, sir."

"All right, then, that will gain time for us. Good-bye, Miss Anna."

The man walked quickly down the street, while the girl hurried off in
the opposite direction, to the nearest police station, where she told
what she had seen.

The policeman reached his goal even earlier. The first glance told him
that the man lying there by the wayside was indeed lifeless. And the icy
stiffness of the hand which he touched showed him that life must have
fled many hours back. Anna had been right about the blood also. The dead
man lay on the farther side of the ditch, half down into it. His right
arm was bent under his body, his left arm was stretched out, and the
stiffened fingers... they were slender white fingers... had sought for
something to break his fall. All they had found was a tall stem of wild
aster with its purple blossoms, which they were holding fast in the
death grip. On the dead man's back was a small bullet-wound and around
the edges of it his light grey coat was stained with blood. His face was
distorted in pain and terror. It was a nice face, or would have been,
did it not show all too plainly the marks of dissipation in spite of the
fact that the man could not have been much past thirty years old. He was
a stranger to the policeman, although the latter had been on this beat
for over three years.

When the guardian of the law had convinced himself that there was
nothing more to do for the man who lay there, he rose from his stooping
position and stepped back. His gaze wandered up and down the quiet lane,
which was still absolutely empty of human life. He stood there quietly
waiting, watching over the ghastly discovery. In about ten minutes the
police commissioner and the coroner, followed by two roundsmen with a
litter, joined the solitary watcher, and the latter could return to his
post.

The policemen set down their litter and waited for orders, while the
coroner and the commissioner bent over the corpse. There was nothing
for the physician to do but to declare that the unfortunate man had been
dead for many hours. The bullet which struck him in the back had killed
him at once. The commissioner examined the ground immediately a