was nothing to show that the criminal had gone through here with
the body of his victim.

"The criminal"--Muller still thought of only one. His long experience
had taught him that the most intricate crimes were usually committed by
one man only. The strength necessary for such a crime as this did not
deceive him either. He knew that in extraordinary moments extraordinary
strength will come to the one who needs it.

He now passed down the steps leading into the vestry. There was no trace
of any kind here either. The door into the vestry was not locked. It was
seldom locked, they had told him, for the vestry itself was closed by
a huge carved portal with a heavy ornamented iron lock that could be
opened only with the greatest noise and trouble. This door was locked
and closed as it had been since yesterday morning. Everything in the
vestry was in perfect order; the priest's garments and the censers
all in their places. Muller assured himself of this before he left the
little room. He then opened the glass door that led down by a few steps
into the church.

It was a beautiful old church, and it was a rich church also. It was
built in the older Gothic style, and its heavy, broad-arched walls, its
massive columns would have made it look cold and bare had not handsome
tapestries, the gift of the lady of the manor, covered the walls. Fine
old pictures hung here and there above the altars, and handsome stained
glass windows broke the light that fell into the high vaulted interior.
There were three great altars in the church, all of them richly
decorated. The main altar stood isolated in the choir. In the open space
behind it was the entrance to the crypt, now veiled in a mysterious
twilight. Heavy silver candlesticks, three on a side, stood on the
altar. The pale gold of the tabernacle door gleamed between them.

Muller walked through the silent church, in which even his light
steps resounded uncannily. He looked into each of the pews, into the
confessionals, he walked around all the columns, he climbed up into the
pulpit, he did everything that the others had done before him yesterday.
And as with them, he found nothing that would indicate that the murderer
had spent any time in the church. Finally he turned back once more to
the main altar on his way out. 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 exam