第84章 A Thumb-print and What Came of It(5)

Again the man tried to do something with his hands.I watched closely,but could not guess the intent.I bent over and watched still more intently.

He had twisted a thumb around and was weakly punching at his breast with it.

'Ah--stabbed,do you mean?'

Affirmative nod,accompanied by a spectral smile of such peculiar devilishness,that it struck an awakening light through my dull brain,and I cried--'Did I stab him,mistaking him for you?--for that stroke was meant for none but you.'

The affirmative nod of the re-dying rascal was as joyous as his failing strength was able to put into its expression.

'O,miserable,miserable me,to slaughter the pitying soul that,stood a friend to my darlings when they were helpless,and would have saved them if he could!miserable,oh,miserable,miserable me!'

I fancied I heard the muffled gurgle of a,mocking laugh.

I took my face out of my hands,and saw my enemy sinking back upon his inclined board.

He was a satisfactory long time dying.He had a wonderful vitality,an astonishing constitution.Yes,he was a pleasant long time at it.

I got a chair and a newspaper,and sat down by him and read.

Occasionally I took a sip of brandy.This was necessary,on account of the cold.But I did it partly because I saw,that along at first,whenever I reached for the bottle,he thought I was going to give him some.I read aloud:mainly imaginary accounts of people snatched from the grave's threshold and restored to life and vigor by a few spoonsful of liquor and a warm bath.Yes,he had a long,hard death of it--three hours and six minutes,from the time he rang his bell.

It is believed that in all these eighteen years that have elapsed since the institution of the corpse-watch,no shrouded occupant of the Bavarian dead-houses has ever rung its bell.Well,it is a harmless belief.

Let it stand at that.

The chill of that death-room had penetrated my bones.

It revived and fastened upon me the disease which had been afflicting me,but which,up to that night,had been steadily disappearing.That man murdered my wife and my child;and in three days hence he will have added me to his list.

No matter--God!how delicious the memory of it!--I caught him escaping from his grave,and thrust him back into it.

After that night,I was confined to my bed for a week;but as soon as I could get about,I went to the dead-house books and got the number of the house which Adler had died in.

A wretched lodging-house,it was.It was my idea that he would naturally have gotten hold of Kruger's effects,being his cousin;and I wanted to get Kruger's watch,if I could.But while I was sick,Adler's things had been sold and scattered,all except a few old letters,and some odds and ends of no value.However,through those letters,I traced out a son of Kruger's,the only relative left.

He is a man of thirty now,a shoemaker by trade,and living at No.14Konigstrasse,Mannheim--widower,with several small children.

Without explaining to him why,I have furnished two-thirds of his support,ever since.

Now,as to that watch--see how strangely things happen!

I traced it around and about Germany for more than a year,at considerable cost in money and vexation;and at last I got it.

Got it,and was unspeakably glad;opened it,and found nothing in it!Why,I might have known that that bit of paper was not going to stay there all this time.Of course I gave up that ten thousand dollars then;gave it up,and dropped it out of my mind:and most sorrowfully,for I had wanted it for Kruger's son.

Last night,when I consented at last that I must die,I began to make ready.I proceeded to burn all useless papers;and sure enough,from a batch of Adler's,not previously examined with thoroughness,out dropped that long-desired scrap!I recognized it in a moment.

Here it is--I will translate it:

'Brick livery stable,stone foundation,middle of town,corner of Orleans and Market.Corner toward Court-house.Third stone,fourth row.

Stick notice there,saying how many are to come.'

There--take it,and preserve it.Kruger explained that that stone was removable;and that it was in the north wall of the foundation,fourth row from the top,and third stone from the west.

The money is secreted behind it.He said the closing sentence was a blind,to mislead in case the paper should fall into wrong hands.

It probably performed that office for Adler.

Now I want to beg that when you make your intended journey down the river,you will hunt out that hidden money,and send it to Adam Kruger,care of the Mannheim address which I have mentioned.It will make a rich man of him,and I shall sleep the sounder in my grave for knowing that I have done what I could for the son of the man who tried to save my wife and child--albeit my hand ignorantly struck him down,whereas the impulse of my heart would have been to shield and serve him.