problem without getting
some light on it. But now, since the chance watching of the spinning
top in the street had given him his first inkling of the trail, he was
following it up to a clear issue. The eagerness, the blissful vibrating
of every nerve that he always felt at this stage of the game, was on him
again. He knew that from now on what was still to be done would be easy.
Hitherto his mind had been made up on one point; that one man alone was
concerned in the crime. Now he understood the possibility that there
might have been two, the harmless mechanician who fancied himself a
dangerous murderer, and the handsome young giant with the evil eyes.

The two men stood looking at each other in a silence that was almost
hostile. Had this stranger come to disturb the peace of the refuge for
the unfortunate and to prove that Dr. Orszay, the friend of all the
village, had unwittingly been giving shelter to such criminals?

"Shall we go now?" asked the detective finally.

"If you wish it, sir," answered the doctor in a tone that was decidedly
cool.

Muller held out his hand. "Don't let us be foolish, doctor. If you
should find yourself terribly deceived, and I should have been the means
of proving it, promise me that you will not be angry with me."

Orszay pressed the offered hand with a deep sigh. He realised the
other's position and knew it was his duty to give him every possible
assistance. "What is there for me to do now?" he asked sadly.

"You must see that all the patients are shut up in their cells so that
the other attendants are at our disposal if we need them. Varna's room
has barred windows, I suppose?"

"Yes."

"And I suppose also that it has but one door. I believe you told me that
your asylum was built on the cell system."

"Yes, there is but one door to the room."

"Let the four other attendants stand outside this door. Gyuri will be
inside with us. Tell the men outside that they are to seize and hold
whomever I shall designate to them. I will call them in by a whistle.
You can trust your people?"

"Yes, I think I can."

"Well, I have my revolver," said Muller calmly, "and now we can go."

They left the room together, and found Gyuri waiting for them a little
further along the corridor. "Aren't you well, sir?" the attendant asked
the doctor, with an anxious note in his voice.

The man's anxiety was not feigned. He was really a faithful servant in
his devotion to the old doctor, although Mulle