as sound
as usual. But he was dreaming and he spoke in his sleep. There was no
one to hear him, for his faithful Margit was snoring loudly. Snatches
of sentences and broken words came from Janci's lips: "The hand--the big
hand--I see it--at his throat--the face--the yellow face--it laughs--"

Next morning the children on their way to school crept past the rectory
with wide eyes and open mouths. And the grown people spoke in lower
tones when their work led them past the handsome old house. It had once
been their pride, but now it was a place of horror to them. The old
housekeeper had succumbed to her fright and was very ill. Liska went
about her work silently, and the farm servants walked more heavily and
chattered less than they had before. The hump-backed sexton, who had not
been allowed to enter the church and therefore had nothing to do, made
an early start for the inn, where he spent most of the day telling what
little he knew to the many who made an excuse to follow him there.

The only calm and undisturbed person in the rectory household was
Muller. He had made a thorough examination of the entire scene of the
murder, but had not found anything at all. Of one thing alone was he
certain: the murderer had come through the hidden passageway from the
church. There were two reasons to believe this, one of which might
possibly not be sufficient, but the other was conclusive.

The heavy armchair before the desk, the chair on which the pastor was
presumably sitting when the murderer entered, was half turned around,
turned in just such a way as it would have been had the man who was
sitting there suddenly sprung up in excitement or surprise. The chair
was pushed back a step from the desk and turned towards the entrance
to the passageway. Those who had been in the room during the day had
reported that they had not touched any one of the articles of furniture,
therefore the position of the chair was the same that had been given it
by the man who had sat in it, by the murdered pastor himself.

Of course there was always the possibility that some one had moved the
chair without realising it. This clue, therefore, could not be looked
upon as an absolutely certain one had it stood alone. But there was
other evidence far more important. The great pool of blood was just
half-way between the door of the passage and the armchair. It was here,
therefore, that the attack had taken place. The pastor could not have
turned in this di