ust have touched
the spring without knowing it, for the top began to spin. I stood still
and watched it, then I ran after it. It spun around the room and finally
came back to the body. So did I. The pastor was quite still and dead by
that time."

"You have heard everything, Dr. Orszay?" asked the detective, rising
from his chair.

"Yes, I have heard everything," answered the venerable head of the
asylum. He was utterly crushed by the realisation that all this tragedy
and horror had gone out from his house.

Varna rose also. He understood perfectly that now Gyuri's power was
at an end and he was as pleased as a child that has just received a
present. "And now you're going to shoot him?" he asked, in the tone a
boy would use if asking when the fireworks were to begin.

Muller shook his head. "No, my dear Cardillac," he replied gravely. "He
will not be shot--that is a death for a brave soldier--but this man has
deserved--" He did not finish the sentence, for the warder sank to the
floor unconscious.

"What a coward!" murmured the detective scornfully, looking down at the
giant frame that lay prostrate before him. Even in his wide experience
he had known of no case of a man of such strength and such bestial
cruelty, combined with such utter cowardice.

Varna also stood looking down at the unconscious warder. Then he glanced
up with a cunning smile at the other two men who stood there. The
doctor, pale and trembling with horror, covered his face with his hands.
Muller turned to the door to call in the attendants waiting outside.
During the moment's pause that ensued the madman bent over his
worktable, seized a knife that lay there and dropped on one knee beside
the prostrate form. His hand was raised to strike when a calm voice
said: "Fie! Cardillac, for shame! Do not belittle yourself. This man
here is not worthy of your knife, the hangman will look after him."

Varna raised his loose-jointed frame and looked about with glistening
eyes and trembling lips. His mind was completely darkened once more.
"I must kill him--I must have his blood--there is no one to see me," he
murmured. "I am a hangman too--he has made a hangman of me," and again
he bent with uplifted hand over the man who had utilised his terrible
misfortune to make a criminal of him. But two of the waiting attendants
seized his arms and threw him back on the floor, while the other two
carted Gyuri out. Both unfortunates were soon securely guarded.

"Do