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THE MAGISTRATE'S
OWN CASE





THE
MAGISTRATE'S
OWN CASE
BY
BARON PALLE ROSENKRANTZ
NEW YORK
THE MCCLURE COMPANY
MCMVIII


KD 14243
Copyright, 1908, by The McClure Company
Published, January, 1908
HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY


CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
A MURDER AND AN ARREST
FIRST PART
THE INVESTIGATION
SECOND PART
THE TRIAL
CONCLUSION





INTRODUCTION
A MURDER AND AN ARREST





CHAPTER ONE
N HE Rheingay is the name of that country of
'vineyards through which the Rhine flows
round the bend at Bingen, past the Castle
of Ehrenfels, to the north. Here, at Rudesheim and
Asmannhausen, the Rhenish grape is pressed into
wine; and here the people are happy and good, for
the soil is rich and their life is easy. The bright river
flows on toward the north, its ripples murmuring of
old legends and songs. Down to the water slope the
vine-clad hills, which merge on the north-east in the
range of Taunus, a lofty, wooded mountain tract,
which shields the Rhine valley between Mainz and
Bingen, and the main valley between Mainz and
Hanau, from the cold north wind.
The Taunus is a beautiful stretch of hills, not wild
or rugged, but friendly and peaceful, with views
across wide forests and over the two silvery rivers,
where they flow between steep banks covered with
vines. Just where the Rheingan ends and the Taunus
begins, on the southern slope lies the world-re-
nowned watering-place, Wiesbaden. Further to the
north-east, on the south side of the Taunus, lies
Köningstein, with the ruins of the old castle of


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 5
Taunus and its baths, where in summer a varied cos-
mopolitan life is to be seen; for Homburg at present
can boast of a contingent of visitors that approaches
twelve thousand.
But it is not only by rail that people visit Hom-
burg: broad, tree-lined highroads lead to all points of
the compass, and in summer-time motor-cars rush
across the valley between Frankfort and Homburg,
between Homburg and Cronberg and up towards the
hill-tops with their ruined castles, where birds of prey
have built their nests.
Homburg itself is an old town,-it lies picturesque-
ly about the Landgraves' castle; a genuine Rhen-
ish town with a market-place and narrow streets,
paved with cobble-stones, over which cart-wheels slip
and creak with a grating of their breaks, and where
trees overhang the streets and meet across the narrow
lanes. The old town-hall spreads its dignified length
in the Rathhausgasse, in the northern quarter, from
whence an avenue leads out to the Saalburg and its
Roman remains.
But the southern quarter is an entirely modern
town, before which the older Homburg withdraws
modestly into the background. Its centre is the Cur-
haus, where formerly the celebrated German gam-
bling tables were to be found: a “hell ” where Eng-
lish guineas competed with Austrian forins and
French napoleons, but where now the roulette stands
still and more innocent amusements are provided to


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 7
persistence with which it drives balls over nets to the
sharp, repeated cries of “Fifteen, forty; game and
set.”
It is a little piece of British soil transferred to the
shelter of the Taunus, an English colony where lords
and ladies, together with untitled mortals, behave as
though they were at home, with that tacit refusal to
recognise that they are strangers in the land, which is
so irritating to the native. The native, however, con-
soles himself for this “superciliousness” by charging
extra for everything; but the visitors pay without a
murmur, since they would doubtless be spending more
money in their own country.
This was in the days when royalty paid yearly visits
to Homburg; and, if Homburg was good enough for
royalty, then it was certainly tolerable for all who had
claims to be “smart”-though no doubt one would
have been more comfortable at home.
It was about five o'clock in the afternoon. A party
of tennis-players had just finished their set on what
was called the Prince's Ground, close to the cross-
ways, in the middle of the Park. A couple of balls
were missing, and the native youths who fielded balls
for the Englishmen and received a princely wage for
the slanging they did not understand, were set to work
to rummage a thicket of old rhododendrons, covered
with a mass of deep red blossoms..
The tennis-players were just leaving the ground
when one of the boys came running towards them
with every sign of terror on his young face. “My-


8 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
on
lord, mylord-gemordet, todt-Lord Faringdon!”
he cried at some yards' distance, and the astonished
Englishmen could not make out a word of it.
They followed the boy and hastily broke a passage
into the middle of the rhododendron bush, where they
were stopped by a sight that gripped even their iron
nerves.
Before them on the ground, with sightless eyes, lay
their friend and fellow-countryman, young Cecil Lak-
ing, seventh Baron Faringdon, owner of Rigsby Ab-
bey and other handsome properties, dead.
“Dead!” ejaculated little Sir Alfred Weston, fol-
lowing up the simple statement by a powerful oath;
and Colonel Wingfield of the Sixth Lancers mechani-
cally echoed his very words. Then they sent the boy
for the police and stood in silence by the body of the
man they had known.
Five o'clock struck; the band stopped playing. The
news of the murder spread like wildfire through the
Park and town; the police arrived, and round the
rhododendrons stood the pick of the English visitors
in solemn silence-ladies among them, unable to re-
sist the sensation and its thrill-awaiting in shudder-
ing suspense the moment when all that was left of
Lord Faringdon should be borne past them on a bier.
The police made a cordon round the scene of the
crime, and the senior functionary present, Police-in-
spector Martin Schaltz, made a rough diagram of the
place and its immediate surroundings.
The shrubbery lay, as we have said, in the middle


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 9
of the Park, where two roads crossed, and only a few
yards from one of them. The body had obviously
been flung into the bushes, and by its weight it had
forced the branches down until it had slipped beneath
them, where it lay overshadowed and hidden from
view, in spite of all the movement of people in the
Park. The actual murder could not have been com-
mitted in the shrubbery; the ground there bore no
trace of footprints and only those boughs immediately
over the spot where the body lay were bent or broken.
The road was hard and firm, and on the grass
around the rhododendron bushes no marks which
might indicate a struggle were to be seen. The shrub-
bery stood quite by itself, surrounded by open lawns,
and the two roads which crossed each other close by
were neither of them bordered by bushes. No sum-
mer-house or arbour stood near the place, and the
nearest building was a little cottage, some hundred
yards away, to which the corpse was carried by direc-
tion of the police.
This cottage stood empty; its inmates, however,
had only moved that same day; they were an Italian
banker and his wife, who had been spending a couple
of months at Homburg. The little cottage lay sur-
rounded by thick shrubs, and it was scarcely probable
that anyone in the cottage could have seen what must
have taken place in the darkness of night. No other
house lay in the immediate neighbourhood of the
scene of the crime, and the drive leading past it was
the main road between the Curhaus and the northern


10 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
gate of the Park, where many villas and cottages
stood.
Policemen were set to guard the corpse, and the in-
spector went at once to his immediate superior, the
police-president, to make his report and receive his
orders. The wind blew across the Park, and the
crowd dispersed, while the news flowed like a tide
over the town. It was everywhere the same talk, the
same thought, the riddle whose solution was the task
of the future: the riddle of Cecil Laking, seventh
Baron Faringdon and his sudden death in the Cur-
haus Park of Homburg.
That was the talk of hotels, taverns and cafés, the
subject that set all the telegraphic machines clicking
and all the journalists of the place writing till the ink
spluttered from their pens and the copy was taken wet
to the press, which was stopped in order to be fed with
new matter, with something that all would read, that
all would see and hear about.
With equal rapidity, but less publicity, other
wheels were set in motion, the whole of that vast ma-
chinery that comes into play when the law has been
broken, and that stretches out its tentacles to seize the
person or persons who are to answer for the dead.
A few minutes earlier there were very few people
in Homburg who knew Lord Faringdon's name; now
it was on all lips, and he and his fate were the subject
of every word that was spoken that afternoon by the
good people of Homburg vor der Höhe.


CHAPTER TWO
RITZ STERNER, Doctor of Law, had been
K appointed in March, 1898, magistrate of the
L district, with residence in Homburg vor der
Höhe. Sterner was a Holsteiner; his father had been
professor of jurisprudence at the University of Kiel.
After the Peace of 1864, when Denmark ceded Hol-
stein to Prussia, he had removed to Kiel, with his wife
and two children, of whom the son, Fritz, was born at
Marburg in 1862.
Fritz Sterner became a student, studied at Bonn
and at Kiel, afterwards at Berlin, and took his degrees
with honours. His practical training he secured at the
criminal bar of Hamburg, and after having drawn
attention to himself by an excellent treatise on pre-
liminary inquiry in criminal cases, he was appointed,
as we have said, district magistrate at Homburg vor
der Höhe. His father had died a widower at the be-
ginning of the eighties, and his sister had married a
young doctor of Kiel, who, after having distinguished
himself as a specialist in diseases of the chest, ob-
tained a responsible but well-paid post at the Dett-
weiler Hospital for Consumption, at Falkenstein in
the Taunus.


12 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
Fritz was unmarried-destined to permanent celi-
bacy, said his sister jokingly; betrothed from his
cradle to Madame Justice. An old housekeeper,
Madame Schultz, a native of Holstein, had managed
his household for some years, but on moving to Hom-
burg it so happened that he had just found the old
woman out in a series of wholesale peculations, and
to his great disgust had to make a change of servants
for the first time in his life.
He was not at all satisfied with the change. His
present housekeeper had been obtained for him by his
sister from Cronberg; he was not yet used to her and
constantly missed Madame Schultz, he said. But
Madame Schultz positively refused to come south, he
continued; for he did not want to speak of his painful
discovery.
What annoyed him most of all was the thought
that somewhere or other there was living a woman,
who, through her own fault, had become his enemy,
whose enmity was perhaps for that very reason even
bitterer than if an act of his had caused it;—a woman
who from many years' association knew much that he
wished forgotten and done with. But there was no
helping it, and Sterner consoled himself with the
thought that he had as few enemies as he had friends,
and that the world would continue to roll on its course
without anyone ever troubling about matters that
concerned him personally.
Sterner lived in an elegant little bachelor apartment
in the principal street, a few steps from the Curhaus,


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 13
quite central in summer, comfortably sheltered in
winter. He lived a rather retired life among his
books, mixed with few people and seldom visited the
Curhaus. Yet he had no objection to taking part in
the many-sided life of the highly fashionable water-
ing-place when chance brought an old friend from
Hamburg or Berlin to Homburg.
On the evening of the seventh of July, 1898, the
post brought him a letter from an old friend of his,
Baron von Sturm, a judge at Aurich, who with his
young wife was intending to pass a couple of weeks at
Homburg. Sterner was not exactly glad to get this
piece of news; he happened to be in the thick of a new
work on evidence in criminal cases and he foresaw
that Sturm's visit would take up a good deal of his
time. But, after all, it was the sort of thing that life
brings with it; a man who wants to make his way in
the world cannot shut himself up from his fellow-men.
And Sterner was one of those who want to make their
way; he was ambitious, and he meant to succeed. He
had no fortune, and his undeniable ability was the
only thing he had to count upon for his future.
But that was not so very little. Fritz Sterner was a
sparely built man of middle height, with dark, very
keen eyes, rather short-sighted, so that he wore gold-
rimmed glasses, tough and persevering, a keen gym-
nast in his youth and from his childhood an enthu-
siastic sailor. The sea was indeed the only thing he
missed at Homburg, but he missed it badly. Sturm
and he were old yachting friends; at Hamburg they


14 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
had shared the ownership of a splendid cutter, the
Alert. Now Sturm was the sole owner, and the boat
lay idle at Wilhelmshafen. Sterner tried to console
himself with motoring, a sport which he followed
with the greatest zeal; he claimed that it gave him
training in promptness and presence of mind-the
most valuable qualities an examining magistrate could
have.
Fritz Sterner had dined and was enjoying his siesta
before going back to his work.
There was a ring at the bell. The housekeeper came
in with an extra edition of the Homburger Lokalan-
zeiger, the local newspaper.
Sterner sat up in the armchair in which he was doz-
ing over a cigar and stretched out a hand for the
paper: “ Any news ?”
His housekeeper was very short of breath: “A
terrible murder in the Park, sir! The rich English-
man, Lord Faringdon, has been found murdered in a
bush behind the tennis-grounds!”.
The magistrate gave a start; he took the paper
from his housekeeper and read:
HORRIBLE MURDER
A RICH ENGLISH LORD MURDERED IN
THE PARK
SUICIDE IMPOSSIBLE
CLUE TO THE MURDERER
THE POLICE ACTIVE


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 15
A crime of a frightful nature has been committed
here to-day, or rather last night, in the Curhaus Park.
The well-known and enormously wealthy Englishman,
Lord Faringdon, has been found murdered in the
clump of rhododendrons behind the Prince's tennis-
ground by the Promenade. The discovery was made
by one of the boys employed to pick up balls on this
ground, who had gone into the rhododendrons to look
for a lost ball belonging to the Duke of Essex, and his
horror may be imagined when he came upon the body
of Lord Faringdon, whom he knew to be a frequent
partner of the Duke's. The body lay with an incised
wound in the back, made by a knife or dagger, strik-
ing downwards between the shoulder-blades to the
heart. Death must have been instantaneous. A slight,
reddish froth between the clenched teeth of the dead
man and a trifling hemorrhage from the wound itself
were the only outward indications to be noticed. Lord
Faringdon was dressed in evening dress and a light
overcoat, stained with blood. His pocketbook was
found in his breast-pocket, containing a considerable
sum in notes, and his costly jewelled watch and a
purse with gold in it were likewise untouched. On ac-
count of the nature of the wound, suicide is out of the
question, and motives of robbery are equally ex-
cluded. The strangest rumours are in the air, but
in deference to the prominent names that are
mentioned, we cannot impart any of these to our
readers.
The body was found at five o'clock this evening.
Police Inspector Martin Schaltz arrived at once on
the spot to make a report; the boys, of course, knew
nothing. There appears, nevertheless, to be a clue,
which, it is thought, will assist the police: a little
medallion was found on the ground beside the body,


16 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
and we are in a position to say that this discovery will
lead to inquiries and revelations which will provide
our readers with more excitement than any detective
story could offer. To-day we mention no names, but
our able police reporter will to-morrow be able to
give certain information which will arouse a great
sensation.
The fête at the Curhaus this evening will be
abandoned. Great indignation reigns among the visi-
tors. The investigation will be placed in the hands of
our new police magistrate, Dr. Fritz Sterner, who has
achieved great fame in the scientific world by his im-
portant work on methods of inquiry in criminal cases.
It will now be seen whether the old saying about
theory and practice holds good. We wish all success
to the energetic and, in spite of the shortness of his
sojourn among us, extremely popular young judge.
Sterner read himself calm, put the paper aside and
got up.
The housekeeper stood behind him with open
mouth: “ Isn't it frightful, sir! And now you will
have to— "
“I shall," answered Sterner with a slight smile.
“But isn't it awful? ” insisted the woman.
The magistrate shrugged his shoulders: “ All in
the day's work, Madame Kunze."
The housekeeper looked at her master with
superstitious terror, then turned slowly and shuf-
fled off.
“Madame Kunze,” the magistrate called after
her; “just one word before you go. I won't have any


18 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
as a
there was too much of the Prussian stiffness about
him, though he was absolutely to be depended upon.
This standing at attention was a nuisance to Sterner;
he hated all this clockwork formality, saluting and
right-about-turn. He would rather have had a
Rheinlander or a Würtemberger. But the man was
there now.
Schaltz remained standing by the door, heels to-
gether, fingers touching the seam of the trousers, with
his white moustache sticking out like bristles over his
thin lips, and his short gray hair brushed back from
· his weather-beaten forehead.
Sterner nodded: “ Come in, Schaltz. I know
about it already."
Schaltz looked askance at the paper; those con-
founded pressmen were his mortal enemies, he hated
journalists with all his honest, well-disciplined, Prus-
sian policeman's soul.
Sterner smiled: “This time, thank goodness, they
had to be brief. Of course they don't know anything,
these scribblers, do they?".
Schaltz shook his head.
“Do you know anything, Schaltz?”
“Not much, sir. The police president asked me to
go to you without delay. The body has been ex-
amined, and the doctor's report will be presented to-
morrow. The preliminary examination can be held
the first thing in the morning."
“ Are there any arrests?”


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 19
“Do you suspect anybody ? ”.
"No."
“Whom have you examined ? ”
“Lord Faringdon's valet. He doesn't speak Ger-
man, so I had some use for my English.”
“ You know English ? "
“Yes, sir."
A ray of self-esteem spread over the policeman's
face.
“H'm,” was all Sterner said. “Any more ? "
“The hotel staff.” Schaltz was a little disap-
pointed: he could not quite make out his new superior,
but he never argued.
“Did they know anything?"
“Nothing."
“Was not Lord Faringdon missed last night or
this morning ?”
“No. His valet believed he had gone to the opera
in Frankfort—as he sometimes did—and had stayed
there for the night.”
“In evening dress?"
“ He was a young man, sir."
“At what time did he leave the hotel yesterday?”
“Six o'clock. He dined with Herr Saarbrücken,
the wine merchant, of Frankfort, but left him directly
after dinner."
“Where did they dine?”
“At the Curhaus. Lord Faringdon took the train
to Frankfort."
“And Saarbrücken?”


20
20 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“Stayed at home.”
“ Have you examined Saarbrücken ? "
“Yes, sir. He knows nothing.”
“Tell me, was not Lord Faringdon very intimate
with this Saarbrücken? What sort of man is he?"
“He is well spoken of. You know him, sir, don't
you?"
“Yes, as one knows everybody in a hole like this.
His wife is a pretty woman?”
“Very pretty; she passes for the greatest beauty
at the Curhaus.” Schaltz melted a little; the old po-
liceman had a weakness for pretty women. It must be
added that this was his only weakness.
“H'm,” Sterner pondered. “Have you examined
Frau Saarbrücken?”
“No, sir. She only came back to-day from Frank.
fort, where she has been spending a few days."
“Why didn't you?”
“Herr Saarbrücken said she was in great distress;
she had an attack of nerves on hearing of the murder
and they had had to put her to bed.”
“H’m.” Sterner looked up. “And this thing they
write about in the paper?” He took up the paper and
ran through the article on the murder. “A medallion.
Is it true about that?”
“Yes, there was a little medallion lying by the
body."
“Any inscription ?
“No, it was a simple gold locket with a lock of
very fair hair and an L in gold on one side."


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 21
21
“What is Frau Saarbrücken's Christian name?”
" I don't know
“Then you ought to know it, Schaltz. Find out
for me at once. You can look it up in the list of visi-
tors; but do it discreetly. And then come back here at
once."
Schaltz turned to go.
“One moment,” said the magistrate, and Schaltz
turned right-about again.
“Was there any house in the neighbourhood of the
place where you found the body ? "
“A little cottage," said Schaltz; “until to-day it
was inhabited by an Italian banker and his wife. But
they left this morning."
“Oho!” said the magistrate." What was the
man's name?"
“ Delphini," answered Schaltz—and added : “But
there is no suspicion against them. Their departure
was arranged a long time ago; they were quiet, respec-
table people, and went about very little. Of course I
obtained information about them at once and heard
only good of them. They were man and wife, they
lived very happily together, and as far as I can hear
they did not know the deceased. But the deceased had
plenty of acquaintances, and not all of them of the
very best sort.”
Sterner nodded. Of course that must be looked
into as well. Will you send down a man to find out
who has been serving at that house, and see that the
person concerned is summoned to attend the examina-


22 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
tion to-morrow morning. You must also be careful
that everybody is summoned to appear who may know
anything about these persons . . . but, as I was say-
ing, find out for me first of all what Mrs. Saar-
brücken's Christian name is. You ought to have en-
quired about that. Now go.”
Schaltz retired. He admitted that he deserved the
wigging. At the outset he had not much confidence
in the theoretical Doctor, but this was a practical
matter. Though, to be sure, rumour said not a word
of the handsome lady and the lord. His name was
generally heard in connection with those of an Italian
marchioness and of a singer at the opera in Frank-
fort.
Schaltz came back with the information. Frau
Saarbrücken's name was Elizabeth; and this seemed
to put Schaltz in a better humour.
Sterner hummed to himself: “Elizabeth — E.
Elizabeth-Lise-Lieschen-Lizzy. What does her
husband call her?”
“I don't know, sir."
Sterner got up. “Look here, Schaltz, when I came
here you told me you were thinking of retiring. You
have had a long service and have earned your pen-
sion. I wished to keep you, because you are very capa-
ble and well acquainted with things here. Your
colleagues are for the most part blockheads, as I saw
at once. Now, this case is a difficult one, or rather,
it may be difficult. If you stick to your wish to retire,
I'll write this evening to the president of the court at


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 23
Hamburg for a man, or perhaps rather to the Moabit.
You can do as you like."
Schaltz flushed and his voice trembled a little:
“ Dr. Sterner, I have not deserved this."
“Very well, then—you wish to stay?"
Schaltz drew himself up, and now his voice was
firm again; he answered briefly, “ Yes."
“Very well. Then you will instantly arrest Herr
Saarbrücken, and summon his wife to appear for ex-
amination to-morrow morning at ten o'clock at the
Town Hall."
“Wha-at!”
“Didn't you hear what I said?”
“ But, Dr. Sterner!”
“I asked you, Schaltz, whether you wished to serve
in this case. You answered yes. I ask you nothing
more. This is an order. You will go, accompanied by
two of your colleagues, to the hotel, and without at-
tracting more attention than necessary you will arrest
on my responsibility the merchant Helmuth Saar-
brücken. Do you understand?".
“Yes, sir." The floor shook as Schaltz struck his
heels together.
Sterner frowned. “I have already pointed out to
you, Schaltz, that I am not an officer. My work has
made me a little nervous; this striking the heels to-
gether annoys me. You understood the order, didn't
you?"
“Yes, sir.” The muscles of the policeman's legs
gave a quiver.


24 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
Then he went.
Fritz Sterner lit a very strong cigar and threw him-
self back in his armchair.
Dr. Sterner's strong point as a magistrate lay in his
habit of instant action: no sooner had he formed a
resolution than he put it in practice. Here was a case
that had already attracted the greatest attention, and
that would be a topic of conversation all over Europe
in the immediate future. Sterner knew very well that
the man who was now pointed out in connection with
the case was one whom perhaps no one else suspected.
He knew the Curhaus Park well; he could see in
his mind's eye the tennis-ground and the shrubbery by
the cross-roads. He knew that the road running past
the shrubbery was a public thoroughfare, the most
frequented in the Park. He knew, too, the cottage to
which the body had been carried. Its inmates he did
not know; he had given a start when Schaltz told him
that they had left, and he now made a note of the
name Delphini on a page of his pocket-book.
Under ordinary circumstances he would have sum-
moned this man to appear at the examination, but he
hesitated about making use of the telegraph in this
connection. And his thoughts returned to the first
clue, to the order he had given to Police Inspector
Schaltz.
The locket and the initial on its case.
Of this matter Dr. Sterner knew more than any
other man in Homburg. He got up and walked back-
wards and forwards in his room.


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 25
There were hard days coming, but the plan he had
laid was going to be carried through; and here was
something more than a mere scientific experiment:
here human destinies were at stake.
The letter to Baron von Sturm was not written that
evening.
SO


CHAPTER THREE
THE firm of Fürste and Wienecker of Frank-
fort-on-the-Main, had changed hands in
1896. The old wine-stores with their great
vaulted cellars on the quay by the Main had been
handed over in that year to the young Hamburg mer-
chant Helmuth Saarbrücken. Saarbrücken was the
son of an importer of Hamburg, thirty-six years old,
well known in his native town as a prominent yachts-
man. He was owner of the Cup-defender Germania,
which had competed at Cowes and wrested prizes
from the English. As a man of business he had less
of a reputation; his father, who preferred to leave
the old established Hamburg house to an elder,
steadier son, had bought the wine business at Frank-
fort in order to get his son Helmuth away from the
sea and from the sport of yachting, which threatened
to be his financial ruin.
Then came his marriage with that lady! Though
Heaven knows there was nothing against Fräulein
Gross, yet it must be confessed that precious little was
known about her at all. She was exceedingly beauti-
ful, lived with her mother at Altona and had spent a
couple of years in England and a year in Switzerland.
26


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 27
Her father was said to have been captain of a steamer
that had been lost in the China seas; her mother was
supposed to have been a governess somewhere in Sus-
sex or Kent. In short, everything about these people
was “supposed.” Fräulein Elizabeth Gross lived, as
we have said, with her mother in a villa at Altona by
the path along the bank of the Elbe, where the Ger-
mania lay at her moorings; and one fine day Helmuth
informed his father that he was engaged. The old
man was not overjoyed, but-it was no use crying over
spilled milk, and there was nothing to be made out of
that son. Saarbrücken's children had always been
spoiled. So the wedding took place at Hamburg in
May, 1896, with all appropriate pomp, and the young
couple went on a tour in the South. The Frankfort
business was bought and the firm of Fürste and Wie-
necker changed hands.
To begin with, Helmuth was much in love; his
wife less so. He was a strong, healthy fellow, but a
little too big, a little too boisterous, too much of the
skipper, and with only a small allowance of brains.
Frau Saarbrücken-Lizzie she was called, as short
for Elizabeth—had far more intelligence than her
husband. She spoke good English and French,
played, sang and painted, was lively and fond of dis-
play; in short, she had all the qualities necessary for a
leader of society. But the envious gods had denied her
one thing—birth. And that was a drag upon her;
her husband did all he could to advance her; his posi-
tion was good, he was looked upon as well off, his


28 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
business was flourishing, and his father undoubtedly
very rich.
In a word, he had claims to consideration, and he
occupied a certain position, but not in the very best
society. For the plutocracy is just as exclusive as the
aristocracy, and Saarbrücken did not succeed in con-
quering the place in society he could have wished for
his wife. She herself did not care so much about it,
but he wanted it. And, what he wanted, he meant to
have. In Homburg he was more successful. The aris-
tocratic society of the place, which was mainly Eng-
lish, was easy-going when out of England, and the
Saarbrückens were taken up in a marked way by Lord
Faringdon.
Cecil Laking, seventh Baron Faringdon, was a reg-
ular visitor at Homburg. His age was twenty-seven;
he was of very fair complexion, not at all handsome,
but genial and pleasant in his manner and very popu-
lar at Homburg, on account of his wealth and
liberality. He lived only for yachting, tennis and
motoring, and had never lived for anything but
sport. He spoke nothing but English, had no idea
of anything under the sun, but was a perfect gen-
tleman. He belonged to the Royal Yachting Squad-
ron; and that is pretty nearly all there is to say
about him.
He was, besides, very fond of the fair sex, to which
he devoted what time he had over from yachting and
other amusements. He had sailed matches with Saar-
brücken, while the latter was a bachelor, and he made


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 29
violent love to his wife after he was married. Lord
Faringdon himself was a bachelor. He had no near
relations, and a distant branch of the Lakings lived
at Roxley on dry bread, praying Heaven that the
titled Cecil might one day capsize with the Prim-
rose in the Channel or run his head against a rock
in the Ardennes in his motor-car.
Meanwhile, Cecil laughed—he would cheat them
yet, marry when the time came, have many children
and secure the succession to Rigsby Abbey. But the
time had not come.
Lord Faringdon, then, had been enormously rich;
now he was murdered, and at Roxley the news of his
death was received with consternation rather than
sorrow.
At the Homburg Curhaus the tidings of Lord Far-
ingdon's death threw everything into confusion. A
fête that had been arranged in connection with the
Duke of Essex's visit was abandoned, as the news-
papers had announced; the visitors swarmed about the
tables like ants in a disturbed anthill; and all the peo-
ple who lived in private houses or at other hotels
streamed into the Curhaus in the greatest agitation.
Reporters arrived in shoals from Frankfort. Every.
thing was in a fever of excitement.
Later in the evening the agitation subsided a little.
Considered more closely, this would be a good adver-
tisement for the place, for there was no question of
robbery; it looked rather like a gallant adventure.
The young lord had the reputation of a Don Juan.


30 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
There were all sorts of guessing and conjecture, but
nothing was known.
Saarbrücken was said to be much upset by his
friend's sudden death, and his wife had arrived post-
haste from Frankfort.
For the first year after their marriage there had
been a good deal of talk about the Saarbrückens and
Lord Faringdon; the intimacy between the young
wife and the wealthy Englishman was much com-
mented upon, but afterwards it attracted less atten-
tion, and now it was treated as quite natural.
When Schaltz found himself in the street outside
the magistrate's house, his head was buzzing like the
works of a clock that had got out of order.
This was something more than a scientific problem;
he knew Saarbrücken well, had made his acquaintance
in connection with a trifling affair of theft, and had
received a liberal gratuity, which he had accepted, be-
cause it came from a Frankforter. Schaltz took noth-
ing from the Homburgers. He knew Frau Saar-
brücken, too; she was gentle and beautiful. And now,
at a word, without a shadow of suspicion, he was to
arrest one of the leading visitors in the place—a well-
known Frankfort merchant-because this greenhorn,
this scientific doctor of jurisprudence-at least, he
might have told him why!
But the locket with fair hair and an L. To be sure,
the lady's name was Elizabeth, which could be short-
ened to Lieschen, or, in English, to Lizzie; but there
were dozens of fair-haired ladies with an L. to their


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 31
name in the world. There must be something more
than that.
Schaltz was in the habit of directing his superiors
—as a rule they were younger than he, no doubt, but
they were men who had confidence in him. This busi-
ness was more than he could swallow.
Of course, the alternative was resignation, but
Schaltz had done good service; he could retire with
honour. Retire over a blunder, though! No, no, no!
But it must be a mistake, it must be a gigantic,
thundering mistake! It was all very well for Sterner
to take the responsibility, but he was a new hand, new
to his work and new to the place.
The disgrace would fall on Schaltz; if the affair
ended in a scandal, the magistrate would only be
moved to another place, while he, Schaltz, how could
he venture to show himself in the taverns, in the very
streets even, here at Homburg, where the townsmen
honoured him with a position of trust in the Veterans'
Club, and where H.R.H. the Prince of Wales had
taken notice of him, to say nothing of the princess,
great and small, of the imperial house !
Schaltz was beside himself with despair. If only
he had had the least little bit of information to guide
him; but he had only been given an order, a con-
founded, idiotic, senseless order, yet an order that had
to be obeyed.
He hesitated; should he turn back and go up to the
magistrate and ask him, with due respect, for an ex-
planation ?


32 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
No, Schaltz was a soldier; this scientific doctor
might despise the military as much as he chose, but
when it came to the point, he was none the less a Prus-
sian, too. No.
At that moment Schaltz hated the slim man with
the sharp eyes behind his gold spectacles; but the doc-
tor was a smart man for all that; Schaltz had seen that
in one or two small cases. Quick as a hawk he was.
So, then, the order had to be obeyed.
With a slow step and a heavy heart Schaltz went
round to the police-station to pick up his colleagues
and get to work. He was directly under the orders of
the examining magistrate, so he had nothing to do
with the police president; which was a bad job, for
the president was an elderly, stiff-starched martinet,
who did not hit it off at all with Sterner.
There was nothing for it but to obey.


CHAPTER FOUR
IT was about nine o'clock when Schaltz, accom-
panied by two plain-clothes policemen, presented
himself at the porter's lodge of the Curhaus
Hotel and asked to speak to Herr Saarbrücken. The
hall-porter was startled, but there was murder in the
air, so, after all, the visit was not to be wondered at.
Besides, he had no idea of its real object—the two
policemen kept outside the door of the hotel—and it
was quite possible that the police should have a good
many questions to ask Herr Saarbrücken, since he was
the murdered man's best friend.
The porter betrayed no curiosity. “It's lucky
you come just now, Herr Schaltz; they have or-
dered a carriage for the 10.15. They're leaving this
evening."
Schaltz gave a jump: “Leaving? Why, Frau
Saarbrücken is ill!”.
“The lady is better; Herr Saarbrücken wants to
leave the hotel, has paid his bill, and leaves, as I told
you, by the 10.15. But there's plenty of time yet for
an interview. Shall I send up your name, Herr
Schaltz ? "
Schaltz thought for a moment. What if the magis-


34 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
La
trate were right, after all! Leaving now! Paid his
bill!
He turned to the porter: “Will you ask Herr
Saarbrücken to be so kind as to come down here; we
can go into the office. I'll wait here meanwhile. Tell
him I particularly want to speak to him a moment.”
“ With pleasure.” The porter was already half-
way up the stairs.
Saarbrücken came down at once. He was dressed
for travelling, and greeted the police officer with a
friendly smile. “I am quite at your service, Herr
Schaltz. What is it you want?”.
Schaltz made a slight bow. “The police president
would like to see you, sir, this evening, about this
affair of the murder that we were talking about this
afternoon."
Saarbrücken looked annoyed.
“Won't some other time do? I must say this is
most inconvenient. I'm leaving this evening. My wife
is not at all well. We are busy packing." He took
out his watch. “Our train goes at 10.15. Besides, I
know nothing about it. It's really most inconvenient."
Schaltz shrugged his shoulders. “The police presi-
dent requested me to ask you to be so good as to step
over; I have to obey orders, you know, sir."
“Of course you have, Herr Schaltz, but to tell you
the truth, I don't feel at all inclined to alter my ar-
rangements to suit Herr von Bitter, especially as he
has shown himself wanting in civility the few times I
have met him. On second thoughts, Herr Schaltz, I


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 35
say, No. If Herr von Bitter wants to see me, let him
come here. One doesn't drag people out at nine
o'clock in the evening. Besides, I am only going as
far as Frankfort; my house is well known, and when
the court requires me I shall appear.”
Schaltz took it very quietly. “That's not the right
way, Herr Saarbrücken. You know it's the business
of the police to look after people's safety. In a matter
of this sort, when it is of the utmost importance that
everything should be cleared up, do you think it's
right of any citizen, much less so respected a gentle-
man as yourself, Herr Saarbrücken, to put difficulties
in the way of the police?"
Saarbrücken smiled good-naturedly. “ Perhaps you
are right, Herr Schaltz. Be it so, then. Just wait a
moment while I go and tell my wife.”
Schaltz thought a moment. “Better not, Herr
Saarbrücken.
Saarbrücken was vexed. “Look here, my good
Schaltz, I shall soon lose patience; besides, I don't
intend to go out without my hat.”
Schaltz turned to the porter: “Will you go up and
get Herr Saarbrücken's hat?"
Saarbrücken looked foolish.
The porter ran upstairs. Saarbrücken turned to
Schaltz.
“One would almost think you wanted to arrest
me?"
Schaltz gave a forced smile.
Saarbrücken's anger was rising; he took a step


36 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
towards the stairs, then turned round to the policeman
and said shortly: “Give my compliments to Herr von
Bitter and tell him that if he wants to see me, he can
call at my address. He took a couple of steps to the
stairs.
Schaltz laid a hand on his arm and said seriously:
“ Herr Saarbrücken, you are a sensible man; you don't
want a scandal. You have to come with me."
The blood rushed to the young man's head, so that
the veins stood out on his forehead. “Does that mean
that you arrest me, Herr Schaltz ? "
Schaltz shrugged his shoulders.
“ Curse you, answer me, man! Don't stand there
looking like a fool! Have you been sent to arrest me,
or not?”
The police spirit was boiling within Schaltz, but he
made an effort and controlled himself. As ill-luck
would have it, his two companions came in sight in the
doorway at the same instant, attracted by Saar-
brücken's noisy outburst.
The hall-porter came down with the hat and gave
it to the wine merchant with a singularly startled look.
A few more people had come on the scene.
It was a very uncomfortable situation. Schaltz
whispered: “Come now, Herr Saarbrücken." He
went close up to him; the two policemen misunder-
stood his movement and came in quickly..
Saarbrücken stepped back, looking as if his head
would burst. With a mighty tug he tore at the banis-
ters, until a great piece came off in his hand.


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 39
Schaltz eagerly protested.
“No, madame, that is not our intention at all; but
the magistrate is to hold an examination, and every-
one who may be thought to know anything about
the case is obliged by law to appear."
“ Can't it be avoided? I assure you, I am just as
innocent as my husband. I haven't the least idea. I
am just as much astonished about it as anyone else.
Lord Faringdon was a friend of ours. But I assure
you I haven't the least idea of how this crime was
committed."
Schaltz looked at her narrowly. Her fine oval
face, which before had been pale, was now over-
spread by a faint blush, and her fair hair lay like a
wreath under the coquettish brown felt hat with two
pointed feathers. And from that fine transparent face
shone two large blue eyes, of a strange grayish tinge,
with a depth like that of the sea.
Schaltz felt exceedingly uncomfortable.
The lady thought for a moment. Then she made
a gesture of the hand. “Take a seat, Herr Commis-
sary, one moment. There can't be any hurry!” She
smiled faintly. “ I'm a little overcome: first this ter-
rible event, the death of my best friend. Then this
utterly incomprehensible arrest of my husband, and
now— Well, don't you think it is too much for a frail
woman? Let me talk to you.”
It struck Schaltz that the description did not suit
her very accurately.
She went on: “Besides, you will understand that


40 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
the prospect of being mixed up in an affair of this
kind is anything but attractive for a lady like my-
self. I shall not run away. A few words to you will
clearly prove my innocence; I am quite at a loss
to guess what I am accused of. I will do what-
ever you ask, but I beg you to spare me the police-
court."
Schaltz became uneasy. On the one hand, it was
hard to trouble a lady at this time of day—more than
hard; but then, on the other hand, there was the way
she took it; and this was indeed more than suspicious.
She was altogether prepared for it!
Suppose Sterner was right after all? He stole a
glance at her. Devilish pretty she was!
“Madame," he said, “I am sorry to say it is im-
possible to grant your request. I have my orders, and
I am obliged to follow them.”
“Is the magistrate on the telephone, Herr Com-
missary?”
“I beg your pardon ? "
“I asked if Dr. Sterner was on the telephone?"
Schaltz felt as if he had fallen out of the skies:
here was a witness who wanted to telephone to the
magistrate at nine o'clock in the evening to talk about
her examination! Well, why not? It is an age of
progress: there was the telephone. Schaltz went up to
the table where the telephone lay, and rang up the
exchange. He was put in communication with
Sterner.
“It is Schaltz, sir."


42 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
charged my errand, and I may take it that you will
appear to-morrow?"
Frau Saarbrücken bowed her head in silence, and
Schaltz took his departure. He was a gallant man,
and he thought it uncommonly rude of the magistrate
to ring her off like that without a reassuring word.
As to the lady herself, she was very handsome, very
composed, and, as Schaltz had to confess, not alto-
gether free from suspicion. There was a locket that
referred to her; well, that in itself was not a suspi-
cious circumstance; but there was something in her
attitude that stimulated his policeman's instinct, and
it was really possible that that irritating and supercil-
ious magistrate had hit the right nail on the head.
A nuisance, too, that the merchant should have
raised a scene. Schaltz could actually feel that people
were scowling at him as he walked down the street.
It had always been his pride that he could carry out
a duty of this kind in a quiet, gentlemanly way. And
he had done nothing but what was right. What a fuss
the man had made! That did not look like innocence
-on the contrary, that was exactly how a profes-
sional criminal would behave.
But, nevertheless, the evidence they had against
him was not much.
Up at the police-station Saarbrücken lay bathed in
sweat on a plank-bed in a drunkard's cell. They had
sent for a doctor, and he had given him an injection
of morphine.
The whole town was in an uproar; Dr. Sterner's


A MURDER AND AN ARREST 43
name was execrated on all sides. The newspaper cor-
respondents were furious with him, and while the
short summer night fell upon Homburg vor der
Höhe, the news of his deed flew on a thousand wires
over the whole of Germany, to be set up in type and
served everywhere with the morning coffee, under
the headlines: “Horrible Murder.—Unprecedented
Brutality of the Police!!!”
OV
So there was added one more sensational murder
case to all those that had gone before: “The Hom-
burg Park Murder” ; the first name in it was Lord
Faringdon's, but in the, to all appearance, wholly
fortuitous linking together of names that seemed to
have nothing to do with one another, his name was
soon thrust aside by others, and circumstances were
indissolubly weaved together in the tissue of “the
Affair."
The first name to be linked with Faringdon's was
that of the man Society had called to arms as his
avenger. Dr. Sterner came forward and took his
place in the chain of events. He acted, and his action
added two names to the series: Helmuth Saar-
brücken and his young and handsome wife Lizzie.
Faringdon—Sterner-Saarbrücken, those were the
names before the world in this case; and those inti-
mately acquainted with them mentioned a fourth
name, that of the advocate Isidor Rosenthal, the man
who, as Saarbrücken's legal adviser, would appear in
defence of the couple who were thus threatened in


44 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
their lives or security by the avenging might of Jus-
tice.
The case was now in order; Lord Faringdon was
dead, murdered, but by his corpse stood the magis-
trate, Fritz Sterner, and he took a grasp of the case
that made it his —Dr. Fritz Sterner's case; and by
his first act he also made it Helmuth Saarbrücken's
case and that of his wife.
The names were there, the persons were there; now
the great drama could begin before the gaping multi-
tude. Every man to his place!


FIRST PART
THE INVESTIGATION





CHAPTER ONE
N the eighth of July, Sterner, as examining
magistrate, opened the inquiry into the case
against Lord Faringdon's murderer, or, as
this celebrated affair was at once called, by a name it
will always be known by, the public examination of
Helmuth Saarbrücken, merchant of Frankfort, ac-
cused of murder.
The indignation at Homburg was immense; crowds
of people swarmed about the streets; the town hall
was regularly besieged, and Sterner had to make use
of a private door to slip unnoticed through the crowd
into the court.
Everyone took Saarbrücken's part, his release was
loudly demanded. The gendarmes were ordered out,
and the police president, who in his inmost heart was
on the side of the people, but who, of course, had to
bow to the magistrate's authority, had some thoughts
of requisitioning a detachment of Bockenheim's hus-
sars to preserve order.
Meanwhile, a telegram arrived for the authorities,
which, on account of the growing excitement, was at
once made public and changed with a blow the mood
of the populace. It came from London. Its sender


THE INVESTIGATION
49
trate, who was quite unknown to him. However,
there was a possibility that the president of the court
would entrust Sterner with the chief investigation,
which followed the report of the prosecution to the
court; and this was the more probable as Sterner's
name was well known as an authority on criminal
matters and at the Ministry of Justice a high opinion
was held of his capabilities. Besides which, the letter
of the law permitted him to be employed, and this
would be a very practical solution, since he resided
on the spot.
However, unless he himself wished it, his employ-
ment in the case was doubtful; and it was Rosenthal's
object to induce him to give up the task. Rosenthal
had no doubt of his client's innocence, though he
knew that Saarbrücken was a very hot-tempered man,
and—what at present no one else knew—that he was
on the brink of financial ruin. The secret of Lord
Faringdon's will was also known to Rosenthal. But
he was not aware that this was already publicly
known in Homburg.
The lawyer found the magistrate in court, and
was admitted at once. Sterner treated him very cour-
teously and began by regretting that the accused had
damaged his case by his unwarrantable behaviour to
the police, which by itself would be enough to cause
him serious trouble, even if it did not confirm the
suspicion that rested on him with regard to the
murder.
Rosenthal tried to excuse his client.


50 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
Sterner looked at him significantly, and said
nothing.
It was of the first necessity to avoid offending the
magistrate, and the advocate therefore asked very
politely what were his reasons for taking such violent
measures against Saarbrücken.
Sterner leaned back in his raised chair and played
nonchalantly with his gold eye-glasses.
“I'll tell you, Herr Rosenthal. Three things:
First, my personal knowledge of Herr Saarbrücken,
which dates from Hamburg days and the Imperial
Yacht Club, where Herr Saarbrücken did not distin-
guish himself particularly in the early nineties. He
is known as a bully.”
“But a good fellow at heart," the advocate put in.
The magistrate shrugged his shoulders. “ That's
a matter of taste. I never cared for him."
"Have you ever had a difference with him ? "
asked Rosenthal cautiously. That would at least be
a reason for withdrawing the case from Sterner's
hands.
Sterner saw the intention, but did not betray him-
self. “No,” he said, “nothing of that sort. But my
second reason is, that his wife inherits all Lord Far-
ingdon's personalty." ..
The magistrate gave him a knowing glance.
"Perhaps that surprises you. On the other hand, I
am surprised to hear that you know it."
“I am Herr Saarbrücken's legal adviser," re-
marked Rosenthal apologetically.


THE INVESTIGATION
51
“Then perhaps you know, too, that he's a ruined
man?" Sterner carelessly waved his eye-glasses.
The advocate turned crimson.
“You will probably admit that these three circum-
stances are in themselves pretty conclusive. If you
will read the reports that the police have furnished
you will perceive that, to put it mildly, things look
bad for Herr Saarbrücken.”
The advocate lost heart: “May I see him?” he
asked in a rather low tone.
"That is not so easy at this point. As you are
aware, the case has not yet gone to the prosecuting
authorities; it will probably be laid before them im-
mediately after to-day's examination. Until then I
think it is best to wait.”
Rosenthal was silent for a minute. Then he said
slowly: “It appears to me, on account of the gravity
of the charge and the peculiar circumstances of the
accused, that it would nevertheless be the right course
to allow him the advice of counsel from the begin-
ning; the more so, because he seems to misunderstand
his position with regard to the court. I am convinced
that he will listen to me, in whom he has full confi-
dence; this will make matters considerably easier for
you to-day, and therefore I cannot suppose you will
refuse to appoint me his counsel. The definite and
final arrangements can then be left until the case
comes before the examining judge of the criminal
court."
Sterner did not like the advocate. Like many


52 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
magistrates, he had more confidence in himself, and
he determined to refuse Rosenthal's application and
refer him to the prosecution. He smoothed over his
somewhat unfriendly refusal by allusion to his pecu-
liar position as the magistrate of a court before which,
by its nature, the case would not eventually be tried.
It must here be remarked that according to Ger-
man law a case of murder comes before the grand
jury at the assizes, in this instance, at Frankfort,
upon the indictment of the public prosecutor. At
present there was only question of a purely prelimi-
nary police examination, which on account of the
gravity of the case was immediately put in the hands
of the local magistrate, who, however, had no juris-
diction in a matter of this sort, but who, as already
remarked, might be entrusted with the examination
by the authority of the superior court.
Rosenthal had to make the best of the refusal, but
he felt very disappointed; and as he was a man of in-
fluence and of some importance through his family
connections with many of the largest bankers of
Frankfort, accustomed, in short, to being accommo-
dated and favoured by all the authorities, he prom-
ised himself that the young magistrate should come
to repent his disagreeableness.
In this trial—for a trial there would be—the two
chief parties, prosecutor and defender, were thus
placed from the first moment in marked opposition
to each other.
Sterner felt it, but he wished to have a free hand


THE INVESTIGATION
at this stage, when it was important to arrange the
case in a groove from which it could not afterwards
escape.
He was on excellent terms with the Ministry of
Justice, and especially with the president of the court,
and was convinced that he would be left to get up the
whole case for the prosecution independently.
That being so he would have the defending counsel
in his power, and according to the law, would be able
to forbid any communication between the accused and
his counsel, except such as took place in his presence.
He was determined to use this right.
Rosenthal, on his side, made up his mind to
abandon any further attempt at getting into commu-
nication with his client, and confined himself to
handing in a letter addressed to him, in which he
offered his services in accordance with the law.
After doing which he returned to Frankfort in
order to use his influence in the right place, even giv-
ing up the idea of going to see his client's wife, with
whom personally he was on no very friendly footing,
and on whose confidence he did not believe he could
reckon.
The ante-room of the court was filled with people
who were going to be examined, and Sterner desired
to have a large body of evidence at his disposal before
he proceeded to the examination of the two most
important persons, the prisoner and his wife.
Lizzie Saarbrücken had appeared in answer to the
summons. She sat quietly waiting in the crowded


54 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
ante-room, while numbers of the curious stole glances
at her and exchanged whispers about her and about
the sensational telegram.
In the court-room itself Sterner was working with
Schaltz at the arrangement of the evidence that had
already been gathered. The telegram had made a
great impression on Schaltz; he had entered upon the
work with reluctance; it had seemed to him that what
Sterner had done was indecorous, and that he suf-
fered from the attitude of the public. But when the
telegram arrived and the magistrate's course of ac-
tion won undivided approval, Schaltz rose again like
a lily of the field after a storm, and he thought that
the honour of the day somehow shone upon him, also.
Work was a thing Schaltz could do, and now he
was going to set to, he was going to show his superior
that an industrious and reliable subordinate may be
of the greatest use to his chief when there was a diffi-
cult problem to be solved.
But first he must satisfy his curiosity.
And therefore he inquired cautiously in a very re-
spectful tone: “You won't take it amiss, sir, I hope,
but as I am to do a good deal of the work for you in
this case may I venture to ask whether you guessed
this last night?" .
Sterner looked up: “No, I didn't guess it."
Schaltz was silent.
Sterner smiled at him coolly and added: “I say I
didn't guess it, Schaltz–because I knew it."
“Beg pardon?”


THE INVESTIGATION
55
“I knew it; if I hadn't known it, do you think I
should have had these people arrested ? ”
“Then you knew the murdered man personally,
sir?"
"No."
“But the Saarbrücken couple, sir?"
“Slightly."
“But how then ?”
“I know Sir Longland Hearne, and I saw the will
drawn up myself.”
Schaltz was struck dumb.
Sterner added: “It was drawn up in May, 1896,
while I was in England, studying English law under
Sir Longland Hearne. As you see, Schaltz, it is
simply chance, nothing more. I don't intend to take
any credit for it; besides, it is only one point in the
case. You will readily understand that I shall make
it my starting-point. Now let us get to work.”
They went through the reports. With regard to
the finding of the body, the post-mortem, and so on,
there was nothing fresh to note. That side of the
matter was perfectly evident. With regard to Lord
Faringdon, no further information had come to hand
as yet; the Frankfort police had been informed by
telephone and were now busy investigating his visit
to that town on the evening in question.
The Saarbrücken couple were to be examined, but
not till later in the day. First, all the people who had
contributed to the reports, were examined.
It was made clear that Lord Faringdon had dined


56 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
at the hotel with Saarbrücken at six o'clock on the
evening before the tragedy, and that he had left by
the 7.15 train for Frankfort; on the other hand, no
one at the station had seen him come home again.
In all probability he must have returned by the train
at 12.16.
Saarbrücken had spent the evening with some ac-
quaintances from Altona named Bechmesser, who
were staying at the Hotel Kaiserin Friedrich. They
had played whist, and Saarbrücken had gone home
to the Curhaus Hotel at half-past ten. There was a
concert until eleven o'clock, and he had been seen at
the concert. Afterwards he had gone up to his room.
At 12.30 the night porter had let Herr Saar-
brücken out. He was wearing a light summer over-
coat and seemed to be in a hurry. This porter had
come on duty at twelve o'clock.
Saarbrücken's nocturnal absence attracted much at-
tention when the story of the telegram became
known; before that no one would have attached much
importance to it. The visitors to the hotel came and
went at all hours of the night during the height of
the season, when there were card-parties and balls
daily at the different hotels and at private houses.
Frau Saarbrücken had returned from her visit to
Frankfort the same day as the murder was discov-
ered.
The more Schaltz studied the different reports and
statements that made up the case for the prosecution,
the more uncertain he became. It really seemed as if


THE INVESTIGATION
57
the examining magistrate had got hold of the right
end of the stick. But it was still doubtful whether
both were guilty or only one of them. Directly guilty
she could not be.
The formal order for a domiciliary visit was now
given, and while Sterner suspended the proceedings
for an hour and took the opportunity of having
lunch, Schaltz proceeded to the rooms occupied by
the Saarbrückens to make the search.
Nothing of importance was found. A few letters
and papers were seized and a Corsican dagger with
damaskeened blade marked “Vendetta " was found
in Saarbrücken's portmanteau. It was bright, and
seemed to be used as a paper-knife. Otherwise noth-
ing worth noticing was discovered. According to the
magistrate's orders, the papers were not gone through
by the police.
Sterner worked quietly and indefatigably, and by
two o'clock he had already made sufficient progress
to enable him to get a general view of the chaos of
material that was before him. And this general idea
of the case fell naturally into three groups:
First, everything that was connected with the
scene of the murder, and the discovery of the body;
and here he was obliged to begin by confining him-
self to the report drawn up by the police, and to the
doctor's autopsy, while of course he intended later in
the day to examine the localities for himself. At pres-
ent it was established that Lord Faringdon, when he
was discovered, was lying on his back, and that, so


58 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
far as could be determined, he must either have been
murdered on the road close by the shrubbery where
he was found, or after being murdered must have
been brought to the place and flung into the thick
bushes.
Probability was in favour of the first of these hy-
potheses. It was a rapid deed that had been com-
mitted, a quick blow of a dagger—followed by a
hasty movement to get the body temporarily out of
the way. The murderer had taken no trouble to re-
move the traces of his crime; the place of conceal-
ment was not suited for that, and he must have
thought that it would not be long before the body
was discovered. It also appeared, from the discov:
ery, that it had been a deliberate assassination. The
wound had been given in the victim's back; this was
a case of a planned attack, and it was not done with
robbery for an object, for all the objects of value
that the young Englishman had on him (a gold
watch, ready money and jewelry) were found on the
corpse. Connected with the discovery of the body
was also the locket, which had first directed the mag-
istrate's thoughts to the Saarbrücken couple. It lay on
the ground by the side of the body, and close to it,
bility that the person who had placed the body in the
shrubbery had dropped the locket and then in the
darkness had not discovered that he had thus left be-
hind him a clue that, on the discovery of the body,
would point to him. The locket was a little one made


THE INVESTIGATION
59
of thin gold and intended to be worn on a watch-
chain; the split ring by which it would hang had been
forced open, and that was the cause of its slipping off.
As regards the scene of the murder, there was also
the possibility that the persons who had been living
in the cottage, which lay only about a hundred paces
from the shrubbery, would be able to give some in-
formation of what had occurred. They had left on
the very day, and under ordinary circumstances this
might be suspicious. The whole of this side of the
case must therefore be investigated, and the servant
of the foreigners, an Austrian Italian maid of the
name of Nathalie Stolzi, was waiting among the wit-
nesses in the lobby.
From some words she had let fall in reply to the
police, the magistrate had made up his mind to re-
serve her examination until such time as there might
be a possibility of connecting her evidence with the
arrest that had been effected.
The second group of facts was connected with
Lord Faringdon's person, and for the moment they
offered no very great body of material; but it was
certain that everything at present known about the
murdered lord pointed to very intimate relations be-
tween the deceased and the arrested merchant Saar-
brücken, and offered such a chain of compromising
circumstances against the latter that the magistrate
ran no risk of not being able to justify the arrest or
of lacking materials for his examination of the
prisoner.


THE INVESTIGATION
61
Was it to be wondered at, then, that he should use
it here? Was it to be wondered at if in this man's
brain the picture of the crime, to clear up which was
his official duty, already stood clearly defined and
illuminated by all the information that had been
gathered?
Now there remained the most important part of
the day's work: the examination of Saarbrücken and
his wife.


CHAPTER TWO
NVRAU SAARBRÜCKEN'S turn came first.
K She had spent a restless night and was very
1 pale.
As she was brought into court, Sterner rose and
made her a respectful bow. She blushed deeply. Be-
sides the clerk, Schaltz was present as witness; at a
word from the magistrate a chair was placed for the
lady.
Sterner leaned forward and addressed her in a
very subdued tone. “Madame,” he said, “I must
first observe that the step I have taken was necessary
as much for your own sake as in the interests of jus-
tice. I am obliged to put to you some questions in the
course of my official duty, which I beg you will an-
swer; and, again in my official capacity, I will draw
your attention to your obligation under the law to
tell the court the whole truth and nothing but the
truth."
Frau Saarbrücken was quite confused; she bowed
her head in silence.
“Your name is Elisabeth Saarbrücken. You are
married to Helmuth Saarbrücken, wine merchant, of
Frankfort-on-the-Main; at present you and your hus-
62


THE INVESTIGATION
63
ere
band are staying at the Curhaus Hotel here-is that
right?"
Frau Saarbrücken bowed again.
“You were born on the twenty-second of April,
1872, at Kiel. Your parents were Captain John
Gross and his wife, Emilie, whose maiden name was
Hansen. Your father is dead, your mother is living
-is that right?"
The magistrate said all this very quickly and with-
out making the prisoner answer in the usual way.
Schaltz was startled; Sterner must have employed his
time well since the evening before, when he did not
even know the lady's Christian name. Well-
Frau Saarbrücken raised her head, and the magis-
trate concluded hastily: “You have never been con-
victed or charged before ? ”.
The clerk's pen scratched away over the paper.
Sterner got up and walked up to the bar.
“ You know that Lord Faringdon was murdered
the day before yesterday—or rather, that he was
found murdered in the Park yesterday afternoon?”
She bowed her head.
“You know that you inherit his fortune?”
She raised her head like a startled deer, quick
as lightning, with a look of sudden astonishment.
“No," she said.
Sterner spoke solemnly: “ Think well and answer
frankly and truthfully."
“As there is an eternal justice over us all, I know
nothing about it."


64 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
Schaltz looked at her closely—that woman was
not lying!
Sterner bit his lip: “Then it is so."
Frau Saarbrücken turned her eyes upon him like
a child in distress, looking up at him beseechingly.
He screwed up his eyes behind his glasses.
The examination proceeded. It was mostly occu-
pied with indifferent things; Schaltz discovered that
the Saarbrückens were a “semi-detached ” couple,
and it also became clear that whatever might have
happened to Lord Faringdon, this woman was as
innocent as a child in the matter. Her visit to Frank-
fort was scarcely referred to.
Schaltz kept his eye on the magistrate. He spoke
very low, almost with deference, and dictated the
words to the clerk almost before she had said
them.
"Only one thing more," he said. “When did you
see the murdered lord for the last time?"
“ It will be four days ago to-day.”
“Was it accidentally that you returned to the
hotel yesterday, after having given up your room
there?”
“No," was the answer.
“Did you know, when you came, that Lord Far-
ingdon had been murdered?"
“No—I came to speak to him."
“Who told you that he was dead?”
“My husband.”
Sterner then addressed a series of questions to the


THE INVESTIGATION
65
witness; he asked her, when Saarbrücken had told
her of the murder of Lord Faringdon, at what time
she had tried to see Lord Faringdon, what reason had
been given for his absence, all apparently unimpor-
tant questions, which Frau Saarbrücken answered in
a low voice, but without hesitation.
Sterner made a pause; then he went on, rather em-
barrassed as it seemed to Schaltz: “ You will not be
accused of any complicity in this murder. There is
nothing to implicate you. I do not hesitate to let you
know this at the outset, to reassure you, if for nothing
else.”
She raised her eyes. “I am innocent, and that is
enough for me."
“Of course, yes ”—Sterner stammered—“I only
tell you this because my official position renders it
necessary for me to inform you that you are not com-
pelled to give evidence against your husband. In-
deed, I am not even justified in adding your evidence
to the documents which will serve as the basis of the
prosecution. I have now found out enough to con-
vince me that the court has no need of your state-
ments to decide what action it will take with you.
You are free. On the other hand, you are quite at
liberty, should you wish it, to bring forward anything
you may know, which you think will avert suspicion
from your husband. You were not in Homburg on
the day when the murder was committed. If you
know anything that would be decisive in averting
suspicion from him, then I beg you to speak. It is


66 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
just as much my duty to take care that an innocent
man is not brought into trouble, as it is to find the
guilty person and deliver him into the hands of
justice.”
“My husband is innocent,” she said.
Sterner shrugged his shoulders.
“What I was thinking of was some definite state-
ment as to what has occurred, and I do not mean
only circumstances that refer to no one but your hus-
band. The murdered man was your friend—very
well, is there anything within your knowledge which
might open up new paths for our investigation ? Did
you know of any people who were his enemies? You
must anyhow have talked with your husband about
how this murder was committed. You must at least
have made some guesses."
She shook her head.
“Well," said Sterner, " in that case, there is noth-
ing more.”
The examination was concluded. The magistrate
handed the lady her evidence to sign; Schaltz could
see how her hand shook as she wrote her name. Then
the magistrate gave her to understand in a low, very
kindly—almost more than kindly tone, that she was
free.
She remained standing, irresolute.
Sterner made a sign to Schaltz and the clerk.
“Gentlemen," he said, "the examination is ad-
journed. Out of consideration for Frau Saarbrücken
I should like to say a few words to her in private, to


THE INVESTIGATION
67
alleviate the difficult position my official actions have
given rise to."
Schaltz bowed and withdrew with the clerk.
Sterner was left alone with Lizzie Saarbrücken.
She stood at the bar with downcast eyes, and a deep
blush spread over her pale face.
Sterner had risen from his chair and had gone
forward to the bar; he gently pushed a chair towards
her and himself sat down in another.
“Lizzie," he said in a low voice-"after what
has passed between us I can only call you by that
name-Lizzie, I beg you to be assured that I am
your friend—that now as always I shall only think
of what is best for you, smooth the way for you, re-
move all difficulties from your path."
She looked up—but said nothing.
“You would not make it up with me. Your
mother has told me that you avoided me; your poor
brother, who is a prisoner in his sick-bed at Falken-
stein, has told me that he has begged you in vain to
forget all that is past and to receive as a friend one
who came to you as a friend. But you would not.
“ It is thus, then, that we were to meet. I would
not talk to you on the telephone yesterday. Our meet-
ing was to be, as it has been. What I could do for
you, I have done; and if I can help it, this affair shall
trouble you no more. But now we have met and you
must give me your hand.”
Lizzie mechanically raised her hand, and Sterner
shook it.


68 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
He looked at her, and saw a gleam as of tears in
her eyes.
“Lizzie,” he said,"it has come at last—you and
I have met again. I am your friend, and as your
friend I shall be able to protect you."
She withdrew her hand.
Sterner took it again, and she listlessly allowed it
to remain in his.
“I know more about you than you think, Lizzie.
Lately you have been more in my thoughts than any-
thing else. I know your sorrow, I know your
troubles, and I offer you my help.”
She whispered:
“I cannot accept help from you, Fritz."
“Not now, not immediately—I don't wish to force
myself upon you, I have been patient; for your sake
I have been visiting Falkenstein, but I have not
forced my society upon you. I was never tactless.
But I will tell you this, that what I know about you
I have not heard from your mother or your brother,
whom you have always spared the knowledge of your
troubles. I have heard it from the man whose death
has brought us together.”
Lizzie trembled, and Sterner released her hand.
“Lord Faringdon told me of your wishes and of
what he has done for you. You might have chosen
a better confidant, but he has acted as a friend. Now
he is dead, and many circumstances point to your hus-
band as his murderer.”
Lizzie rose.


THE INVESTIGATION 69
“He is not- ".
The words came with an outburst of fear and
anxiety.
" It may be my lot to convict him. I know, be-
sides, a great deal about his behaviour 'to you, that
will not make me feel more lenient towards him.
Truth must come to light, and then woe to him!”
“ Saarbrücken is innocent—he did not murder
Cecil. He did not, I say—he cannot have done that."
Sterner shrugged his shoulders. — “ Time will
show."--Histone became friendly again, almost
affectionate.—“But you, Lizzie, must trust in me
from to-day. You will not regret it. As to the
future, we will not speak now, the time is short, but
I only beg of you give me your promise—try me."
She looked up and said, almost in a whisper:
"I cannot—let me go—let me go home and try to
find peace there. You say yourself that you are not
going to send for me here any more. If that is so,
then let me be alone. You must not ask anything of
me, Fritz.”
Sterner had risen.
“Then we will say no more about it to-day. But
I shall come to see you, Lizzie, at your home, and
you must give me your confidence. Whether I am to
prepare the case against him or not, I want to feel
sure at least that I possess your trust, and this time,
Lizzie, I shall not fail you. I only ask for your
friendship.”
She said nothing, but her cheeks were glowing.


70 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
She turned to go, then stopped and said in the same
low tone: “Fritz, can you give up this case ?"
Sterner nodded.
“Then do so—that will be the truest way of show-
ing me that your words are honestly meant."
“May I come and see you at Falkenstein and talk
over this?"
“Yes, about this you may— "
Sterner took her hand to say good-bye.
She went away with bowed head, as in a dream.


CHAPTER THREE
YCHALTZ was dumfounded. Evidently there
was something behind this. The young, hand-
some lady was blushing as if she had come
from an assignation. These two knew each other,
that was certain. He cudgelled his brains to find out
how. Kiel, Kiel-Sterner came from Kiel; Frau
Saarbrücken was also born at Kiel. Were they old
friends, then ? But why had he said nothing about it?
Well, that did not concern the police. But the con-
versation through the telephone! No, there wasn't a
shadow of doubt that these two people were old ac-
quaintances.
Schaltz took a shrewd observing look at his supe-
rior. “ All right, you think you can play tricks with
an old police hand like me!” he thought.
He checked himself in these disrespectful thoughts,
and involuntarily drew himself up, but he swore a
genuine Brandenburg oath that he would be on the
lookout. There was going to be some fun.
Saarbrücken was brought into court. He had the
handcuffs on; this was due to his behaviour on the
previous evening.
Sterner made a slight bow. The accused stood


72 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
stiffly defiant at the bar. Sterner noticed the hand-
cuffs.“ Will you immediately remove these hand-
cuffs, gaoler,” he said. “In Prussia no subject is
brought up with bound hands."
The gaoler hastily obeyed.
Sterner continued: “Will you bring forward a
chair for Herr Saarbrücken? Please sit down. Thank
you, gaoler; now you can go.”
The gaoler hesitated. “I said you could go; didn't
you hear?”
The gaoler went.
Sterner left his seat and approached the accused,
who, in spite of the invitation to be seated, still stood
at the bar, rather confused. He had armed himself
with defiance, expecting official arrogance, and did
not know what to make of the magistrate's consider-
ate behaviour.
Sterner made him another little bow.
“Herr Saarbrücken," he said, “before I begin
the examination, I wish to inform you that your
legal adviser has applied to me to be allowed to de-
fend you. I am very desirous that you should have
confidence in me; I should prefer that, until the
prosecuting authorities take over the case, you should
have an opportunity of speaking out quite frankly to
me. The laws of Germany forbid me to deal with
you without witnesses. I therefore confine myself to
saying that I am aware of the fact that besides being
your judge—I am a man to whom you bear an old
grudge. I admit that I once found myself opposed


THE INVESTIGATION
73
to you on a purely sporting question. The present
serious situation has completely effaced all traces of
that trifling contention. On that you have my word
as a gentleman. The German law obliges me to direct
my attention quite as much to what speaks in your
favour as to what speaks against you. I shall do my
duty as a judge and as a man of honour. I wanted to
tell you that before opening the case."
Without waiting for an answer Sterner took his
seat in the judge's chair and motioned Saarbrücken
to be seated.
Schaltz had followed the scene with great atten-
tion. So here was an old acquaintance! And what
about the wife? He took up his position, feeling like
the rightful occupant of a stall at a sensational first
night.
Saarbrücken was completely disarmed; he sat in
DC Sealed.
silence.
The examination began with the customary ques-
tions as to date and place of birth, and so on.
Saarbrücken answered in a low but firm voice.
Then they came to the point.
“Your arrest is due to the fact that you were about
to leave the town.”
“That's a lie,” thought Schaltz. “What does he
mean by that?”
Saarbrücken flared up: “I considered myself at
liberty to leave whenever I liked.”
Sterner objected mildly: “ It was injudicious of
you, Herr Saarbrücken, after the police had asked


74 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
you to give information and led you to suppose that
you would be called to give evidence at the inquiry.
You did so, didn't you, Schaltz?”.
Schaltz sprang to his feet: “Yes, sir!”
The magistrate's face gave a nervous twitch, and
Schaltz sat down again, swearing to himself.
Saarbrücken shrugged his shoulders: “I could not
guess that anyone would take it into his head to
suspect me."
Sterner raised his head: "Perhaps— "
“Why am I suspected in this ridiculous way?"
“Because certain circumstances point to you, Herr
Saarbrücken. The case is of very great importance;
it is a case that draws the attention of the whole of
Europe to this town, where people whose names are
known all over the world have come for health and
pleasure, where foreign royalty honours us with its
presence, where, in short, the élite of Europe is as-
sembled. We have to treat it so that no one can
reproach us."
Saarbrücken mumbled: “It is rather hard that I
should have to pay for all this.”
The magistrate then took up the little locket that
was found on the scene of the murder, and asked
sternly: “Do you know this ?”.
“Yes," replied the accused; “ It is a locket with
my wife's initial and—a—a souvenir.”
" It was found on the scene of the murder. Do
you admit that this is a fact of importance?”.
Saarbrücken bowed his head. “Yes—if anyone


THE INVESTIGATION
75
had asked me about it yesterday, I could have ex-
plained it all.”
"Perhaps you will explain it now?”.
“This locket used to belong to me. I wore it until
the day before yesterday, when I lost it playing ten-
nis, and one of the boys brought it to me during the
afternoon."
“While you were sitting smoking on the terrace
of the Curhaus with the murdered man, was it not?”
“Yes."
“You will admit that this looks singular? The
boy brings you this locket at six o'clock in the after-
noon. Next day it is found on the scene of the mur-
der, torn off a chain; this link has evidently been
strained, so it was torn off. Will you give me an ex-
planation of this, Herr Saarbrücken ? "
Schaltz sat with wide-open eyes. He knew nothing
of all this; it was clear that Dr. Sterner was not so
green after all. Deuced singular that this had es-
caped Schaltz.
The accused pulled himself together. “I admit
that this appears to be against me. I see now that the
affair is more complicated than I thought, but I have
a clear conscience and I shall come out of it all right.
I did not lose this locket on the scene of the crime.”
Sterner was perfectly calm; his voice sounded very
friendly: “I only asked you for an explanation. I am
willing to accept any you offer me. I am glad to hear,
at any rate, that you admit I was justified in acting
as I did. For you do acknowledge that, don't you?”


76 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“Perfectly,” replied the accused.
“Very well. Then will you explain to me how this
locket came to be where it was found?”
“I gave it the same evening to Lord Faringdon.”
“Gave Lord Faringdon a locket with your wife's
initial ! ” Sterner opened the locket. “And as far
as I can see, a lock of your wife's hair! You will
admit that this sounds very strange? You can scarce-
ly suppose—or rather, does your wife know of
this?"
"No."
“H'm!” Sterner rose and came down from his
seat. “I am bound to tell you that this is bad, very
bad. To be sure, it is only circumstantial, but very
important circumstantial evidence. And so you are
quite unable to explain it?"
“Quite," answered the accused quietly.
"Well, if that's so, I must put it into the evi-
dence.”
Sterner dictated and the clerk took down his
words; it struck Schaltz that the form of them was
very favourable to the accused. Far from using any
expression that might render the circumstance more
suspicious than it was of itself, the magistrate showed
every desire to give the prisoner fair play.
Saarbrücken formally acknowledged the correct-
ness of the report.
Sterner resumed his seat and continued: “You
came back to the hotel the evening before last before
eleven? ” He read the report and looked inquiringly


78 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
that is, that after what has passed the case will be
directed against you alone. If you are innocent you
will certainly abandon your attitude. If, for instance,
it is a question of a lady, whose good name you con-
sider yourself bound to shield—that is a possibility-
then neither you nor she will be silent in the long run.
You see, you run the risk of being condemned on
this. And then, when you speak out, perhaps it will
be too late; the traces of the crime will be wiped out.
The authorities will be led away from the right scent
to a false one; the case will come to nothing. You
will understand that you are not master of what you
will say and what you will not. It is your duty to
speak.”
Saarbrücken clenched his teeth and said nothing.
Sterner pursued in the same steady, quiet tone:
“Besides which, no one will hear of your explana-
tion. These gentlemen are on their oath; if your alibi
can be proved, the case against you will be dropped;
and the proof of your declarations shall be made with
all possible discretion. Therefore I beg you to
speak.”
“I cannot prove my alibi. Who can prove an alibi
completely? I passed through the Park twice—that
is enough. I know as little as anyone when the mur-
der took place. Who knows that I may not have
passed the spot while the murder was being com-
mitted, and then of what use is my alibi ? No, I can't
say where I was."
“ But you were in the Park?”


THE INVESTIGATION
“Yes.”
Sterner dictated what had passed to the clerk.
When it had been read over he added:
“Well, Herr Saarbrücken, after this you will
scarcely be surprised if you are charged with the mur-
der. Can you say anything to invalidate in some
other way the presumption raised by this examina-
tion? Have you any idea who committed the mur-
der?”
“No, the whole thing is inexplicable to me."
“You have nothing to add?”
“No."
“Very well. I have only one or two more ques-
tions to put to you. What is your financial position ? "
“I am insolvent."
“ Insolvent! And you carry on a large business-
you stay here and spend a lot of money?"
“I have only to be kept in custody two days, and
my creditors will apply for a receiver to be ap-
pointed.”
“Did you foresee this ? "
"No; if I had been at liberty I should easily have
been able to ride out the storm, but now it is all over.
It is no use blinking the fact. The step you have
taken means ruin to me. I shall have to bear
my trouble like a man. And I can do that, thank
God!"
“And your wife—is she prepared for this?”.
“No, my wife knows nothing about my business,
but my misfortunes will not fall upon her. Her


80 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
mother is at Falkenstein, and has some small fortune.
Besides, my wife is provided for in another way. She
inherits all Lord Faringdon's personal property, and
he was very rich."
Sterner played with his eye-glasses.“ Do you see,
Herr Saarbrücken, that this circumstance, taken with
the others, furnishes a still more weighty piece of
evidence against you?".
“Perfectly," answered the accused calmly.
“And that these circumstances may drag your
wife into the case?”
“I don't believe it. My lawyer can prove that my
wife knows nothing of Lord Faringdon's testamen-
tary dispositions."
“There you're going too fast," interrupted Ster-
ner. “One can't prove a negative.”
Saarbrücken raised his head with a little smile:
“ It is not everybody that has my bad luck. I can
prove that my wife has taken steps to obtain a di-
vorce, and that the only thing that has stopped it has
been my opposition.”
Sterner raised his head, which he had lowered
while this statement was being made.
“Are you aware that this piece of information
makes your case still worse?”.
Saarbrücken smiled again: “Dr. Sterner, it can't
be worse than it is. I am not a particularly religious
man, but I still have some faith in truth and justice.
I have full confidence in my just cause. And," he
added, with a bow and a sarcastic smile, “in order


THE INVESTIGATION 81
to avoid those drawbacks you referred to, I should
advise you to undertake a search at once elsewhere,
before it unfortunately becomes too late."
Sterner scanned the accused closely. Schaltz pierced
him through with his eyes. This was really a wonder-
ful man—both of them were, in fact. So, after all,
there was something to be learned from science.
The evidence was copied out and given to the ac-
cused to sign. The magistrate stood thinking for a
moment.
“Remove the prisoner," he then said shortly.
Thereupon the accused was taken out, and Sterner
gave the order to call the witness who had been in
service with the Italian couple before their depar-
ture.
The witness entered.
Sterner looked closely at her as she came in, a mid-
dle-aged woman, very showily dressed, short and very
dark.
“Your name?” he asked.
“Nathalia Stolzi.”
“Where born?”
“In Austrian Tyrol, but I have lived here in Hom-
burg for fifteen years."
“You were in service at the little cottage in the
Park, with the banker Delphini and his wife?”
“Yes,” was the answer.
“You were at home the night before last at mid-
night?”
“No," said the witness. “Madame sent me into


82 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
town at eleven o'clock to a dressmaker's, who was to
have had some things ready by that time. Madame
was leaving early the following morning."
“When did you come home?”
“At about half past twelve.—I don't remember
the exact time. But I had to wait a good time at Fräu-
lein Krause's, the dressmaker's, as she was not ready
with the things."
“Had your mistress gone to bed when you came
back?”
“No, both she and my master were up. They were
busy packing."
“ Did you meet anyone in the Park ? "
“ Yes,” replied Nathalia Stolzi; “somewhere
about the crossroads—where they found the mur-
dered lord—I saw a gentleman who was walking
along the road.”
“ Indeed," interrupted Sterner; “and would you
be able to recognise this gentleman if you saw him ? "
Nathalia hesitated for a moment. “Yes, I think
so. He was tall, stout and fair; he wore a light over-
coat and had a soft felt hat on his head.”
“Schaltz,” said Sterner, “will you bring in the
prisoner?"
Schaltz went out.
Sterner turned to Nathalia Stolzi.
“Now perhaps you will be kind enough to think
well over it-your statement here is of the very great-
est importance, you understand. It may have a deci-
sive significance on the fate of a fellow-creature.


THE INVESTIGATION
83
If you recognise this man, you must say so; if
you have a shadow of doubt, you must also tell us
that."
The dark little woman was on thorns. Her former
confident bearing had disappeared, and she trembled
slightly.
The door opened and Schaltz entered with Saar-
brücken.
Sterner kept his eyes fixed on Nathalia.
“Was it he?"
The witness turned towards Saarbrücken, whose
face was calm and unmoved; her voice trembled as
she whispered, turning to the magistrate:
“ It was he."
There was a deep silence.
“ Did you, Saarbrücken, meet this woman the
night before last about half-past twelve in the Cur-
haus Park?” asked Sterner.
"No," was the answer.
“Remove the prisoner again,” said Sterner.
Schaltz made a sign to Saarbrücken, and together
they left the court-room.
“Are you aware that this evidence of yours, which
you will have to repeat in the assize-court, is of de-
cisive importance to the accused?” asked Sterner.
“Yes," replied the witness in a scarcely audible
voice.
Sterner proceeded with the examination. He inter-
rogated the witness backwards and forwards, about
her master and mistress, about herself and about the


84 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
people who could testify as to her. It appeared from
her explanations that the Delphini couple led a very
retired existence, and as far as she knew lived very
happily together. She had only been their servant
during the time they had been living at Homburg;
they had but few acquaintances, but enjoyed the best
of reputations. The witness was unable to say
whether either of them had left the house that even-
ing. Her master was out when she left, and he was
at home when she came back, about half-past twelve,
as before stated. She had never heard Saarbrücken's
name mentioned in the house, nor Lord Faringdon's
either, and as far as she knew these two persons were
unknown to her former master and mistress. As to
their departure from Homburg, she declared that
the date of it had been decided as far back as her
engagement, and their tenancy of the cottage expired
on July 8th.
She knew that Mr. Delphini's home was in Milan,
but she did not know the address. The couple had
gone from Homburg to Switzerland to spend a few
weeks in the mountains.
Finally, this witness was dismissed, and Saar-
brücken was again brought in. '
“Mr. Saarbrücken,” said Sterner, in a quiet, firm
voice. “You will perhaps have remarked that the
evidence of the last witness makes your position more
than questionable. You deny having seen this wom-
an; I pass over that, since it is quite reasonable to
suppose that you did not notice her, although she


THE INVESTIGATION
85
went by you at a very short distance; but she saw
you; and it is thus established that you were seen in
the Park at a time when the murder may have been
committed. I must therefore call upon you—this time
in your own interest—to explain how you came to
be present at that spot at the time in question. There
is no question now of proving an alibi; there can be
no talk of that; you have only to explain why you
were in the Park.”
Saarbrücken looked up with a slight smile.
“I have told you myself that I passed the Park,
so there is nothing new in this as far as that goes.
And I don't see what difference it makes if a woman
unknown to me has seen me. I don't know when my
friend was murdered—whether you know it or not, I
can't decide.”
Sterner shrugged his shoulders.
“Schaltz,” he said; “ take the prisoner back to his
cell.”
As Saarbrücken was turning to follow Schaltz, the
magistrate addressed him once more.
“Prisoner,” he said, “I must tell you that, accord-
ing to the provisions of Paragraph 88 of the code of
criminal procedure, you will to-day be confronted
with the body of the murdered man.”
Saarbrücken raised his head solemnly: “I have
seen a dead man before now, and could the body
witness to my innocence it would cry aloud to
heaven.”
Sterner said nothing.


86 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
The order for close confinement was cancelled, and
the prisoner was led away. The inquiry was sus-
pended, and the court rose..
The same day, shortly after the examination, the
public prosecutor was summoned by telegram.
Schaltz was now convinced that Helmuth Saar-
brücken was the murderer. He approached the mag-
istrate respectfully: “ Dr. Sterner,” he asked, “how
did you come to know that about the locket? Excuse
my asking, sir, but it was a thing I ought to have
known.”
Sterner smiled: “Chance, Schaltz-blind chance.
The boy who found the locket was my porter's son;
I got the story from him this morning.”
Schaltz shook his head: “It doesn't look well
for him, sir."
“No," replied Sterner; “ it does not. But it would
look worse if there had been less of it; as it is, there
is almost too much."
That is how the case stood on the eighth of July,
and the next day the court at Frankfort was informed
of the prosecution of Helmuth Saarbrücken, mer-
chant, charged with the wilful murder of Cecil Lak-
ing, Baron Faringdon, late of Rigsby Abbey, in the
county of Kent, in the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. The charge included no one else
besides Saarbrücken, as the public prosecutor had
been put in possession of facts which seemed to pre-
clude the possibility of the wife of the accused, Elisa-
beth Saarbrücken, having any share in, or even


THE INVESTIGATION
87
knowledge of, the crime with which her husband was
charged.
On the same day the legal viewing of the body
was conducted by the official surgeon, Dr. Grible, in
the presence of Magistrate Sterner and the accused,
who stood quite coolly and collectedly by his mur-
dered friend's body and watched without the slightest
tremor while the doctor showed how the Corsican
dagger fitted the fatal wound perfectly.
The doctor shook his head. Either this man must
be innocent, or more hardened than any professional
criminal.


CHAPTER FOUR
N July 9th the examination of witnesses was
continued, and the roth saw the arrival of
the two English solicitors, Sir Longland
Hearne and Mr. Tunstaple Wells.
Sir Longland Hearne might have been taken for
an eminent politician; he was thin, upright and sharp-
featured, had iron-gray hair and wore an eyeglass.
His eyes were brown and naturally full of life, but
strict discipline had made them appear dull and un-
fathomable. He was something of a dandy, and his
income was not less than twenty thousand a year. He
had been at Oxford with the sixth Lord Faringdon,
whose lawyer and confidential friend he afterwards
became.
In 1888 Hugh, sixth baron, was racing at Cowes
when he met with an accident which caused his death.
Lord Cecil was then only seventeen, and when he
came of age and inherited the property, he inherited
Sir Longland as well.
The Roxley family who were next of kin, cherished
a natural distrust of Sir Longland. Sir Longland did
staple Wells, and thought him of very small account.
.8


THE INVESTIGATION
89
It was therefore not an unmixed pleasure to him
to share a cabin and a railway carriage with Mr.
Wells all the way from Dover. They did not say two
words to each other on the journey, though they had
the carriage to themselves.
They both went to the Curhaus Hotel; they had
both come on the same business—to look after Lord
Faringdon's inheritance.
Sir Longland Hearne was not long in finding out
that Sterner was the man it would best pay to see,
and to him he went.
Sterner was guarded. He received his former
principal politely and Sir Longland was glad to hear
that his pupil was getting on well. He was interested
in hearing about Frau Saarbrücken, and it was with
no little satisfaction that he found she was not
included in the accusation. He would have been
sorry that such a thing should have happened to his
client; for he regarded himself as a part of the heri-
tage and placed himself at the lady's disposition. On
the other hand, he was grieved to hear that her hus-
band was probably the murderer; but as the lady was
to be divorced and could get a division of property,
they would get over that. Sir Longland was less in-
terested about Lord Faringdon; to his mind a dead
client was represented by his legal heirs, and the thing
now to be done was to get the position defined so
that Sir Longland Hearne might be master of the
situation.
The funeral of Lord Faringdon would be his


90 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
affair; it should be carried out with all pomp at
Rigsby Abbey; it was provided in the will that if the
body could be found, it should be cremated and the
ashes placed in an urn in the Abbey chapel. The late
Lord Faringdon had calculated on being drowned,
but it had turned out otherwise.
Sterner was very well satisfied with Sir Longland
Hearne, and they agreed that Sterner should intro-
good arrangement if Sterner were to be appointed
her trustee, but there was plenty of time for settling
details.
Sterner asked whether Sir Longland would like to
see the body; Sir Longland did not care about that,
but proposed to Sterner to come to lunch with him;
Sterner accepted the invitation, but suggested that
they should lunch at Cronberg, where Frau Saar-
brücken was now staying. Sir Longland Hearne
asked whether it was there that the Empress
Frederick had a villa, and on being told that
it was, expressed his respect for the English
princess. Then they got into Sterner's motor-car
and went up to Cronberg to lunch and see the
heiress.
Mr. Tunstaple Wells lunched alone at Homburg,
and then paid a visit to the police president, who
passed him on to Schaltz. Mr. Wells went to see
Schaltz and found him a man after his own heart.
Wells held radical and democratic opinions; his
father had been a Scotland Yard detective, and from


THE INVESTIGATION
his childhood he had been accustomed to the police
and their ways.
Schaltz spoke good English and gave Mr. Wells
an account of the whole affair, so far as discretion
allowed him.
Mr. Wells asked Schaltz whether they should be
frank with each other, and Schaltz declared that he
would be delighted if Mr. Wells would be frank.
So Mr. Wells told him that his mission was to
represent the next of kin, the Lakings of Roxley,
who had been informed by a certain Sir Longland
Hearne-to put it mildly, a most arrogant and intel-
lectually insignificant person—that the whole per-
sonal property of the murdered lord had been left to
a German lady. Mr. Wells had seen in the paper that
this lady was the murderer's wife, and he was very
glad of it, since she was probably an accomplice in
the crime and therefore would be excluded from the
legacy.
Schaltz had to deprive Mr. Wells of this consola-
tion; the lady in any case was innocent, and the legacy
would certainly go to her.
Mr. Wells pondered it.
“Then I may just as well go home again,” said he.
“It isn't in my line to squabble with the great Sir
Longland over his lordship's corpse. Let him and the
lady bury his lordship between them; he was a use-
less booby while he was alive, and now he's been
stuck like a pig. Peace be with him!”
Schaltz had an idea.


92 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“Mr. Wells," he said, “there is still a possibility
that there may be some work here for you. Are your
clients rich ? "
Mr. Wells drew himself up: “My clients either
are rich or are going to be rich-generally by my
help. The Lakings of Roxley, and especially Lord
Julius Laking, now eighth Baron Faringdon, are at
this moment about to become very rich.”
Schaltz blinked his eyes. “Sir," said he, “my lips
are sealed, when it is a question of police informa-
tion; but I am human, I have seen a good deal and I
am at liberty to think my own thoughts like other
men. As things now stand, Saarbrücken is accused of
the murder, and there is much circumstantial evidence
against him. There are so many points that I have
seldom seen more, and therefore there is something
for a lawyer to do. You ought to call on your Ger-
man colleague without delay, Mr. Isidor Rosen-
thal, advocate, of Frankfort, Mr. Saarbrücken's
counsel.”
Mr. Wells pondered it. “Do you think yourself
that the man is innocent ?"
“Don't know,” replied Schaltz shortly.
* “Well, whether he is or not don't really make a
button of difference to me or the new Lord Faring-
don," said Wells with a slight yawn. “ As a lawyer,
chiefly occupied with money matters, I don't take any
interest in criminal cases, and I don't see that it mat-
ters one way or the other if Saarbrücken is the mur-
derer. His wife—who seems to be going to run off


THE INVESTIGATION
93
with a lot of money that rightly ought to come to us
—she's innocent, according to what you say."
Schaltz cleared his throat.
“Sir," he said, “now you are putting words into
my mouth that I have never used. As a policeman I
can't say anything more, I can only hint to you that
if your clients are rich, it would be to their interest to
lay out some of their riches on finding out who has
murdered Lord Cecil. That is, provided of course
that it is not Saarbrücken. For if it is he, then the
heiress, who stands between your clients and their
inheritance, is innocent and fully entitled to receive
the legacy."
“Do you mean to say you think—" began Wells.
Schaltz interrupted him. “I only mean to say that
I advise you to try and work as closely as you can
with Mr. Isidor Rosenthal.”
Mr. Wells took the matter under deliberation, and
decided finally to throw in his lot with Mr. Isidor
Rosenthal.


CHAPTER FIVE
N his large and handsome office on the Zeil,
Frankfort's principal artery, sat the advocate
1 Isidor Rosenthal, buried deep in his work.
It was Saarbrücken's affair—or rather, Saar-
brücken's affairs—that just now hung over the great
office and its many clerks, as a case, a man and his
affairs may suddenly lay claim to the whole of a
lawyer's activity.
The formal side of the case was clear. Saarbrücken
was charged with murder and the court had ap-
pointed Isidor Rosenthal for the defence. Saar-
brücken was much liked in Frankfort, and his friends
had formed a committee of liquidation to carry on
the business of the firm of Fürste and Wienecke under
Rosenthal's supervision, so as to keep it above water
for the present, until a definite arrangement could be
come to.
The arrest of his son came upon Saarbrücken Sen-
ior like a thunderbolt; he would have been ready to
provide for his smaller personal needs, but he had
foreseen the bad state into which the business had got,
and he was too wise to throw away any of his money
in helping it. He stayed quietly at Hamburg and


THE INVESTIGATION
95
when he went on the Bourse received the condolence
of people whom he knew to be rejoicing over the
ill-luck that had befallen his house. That is the
custom of stock exchange people all the world
over.
But all this gave work, much work to Isidor Ros-
enthal. He sat up to the ears in the books and papers
of the house of Fürste and Wienecke, when his chief
clerk announced Mr. Tunstaple Wells.
“Ask him to come in,” said Rosenthal, imme-
diately assuming that air of the man of the world
with which business people on the Continent arm
themselves against the English, lords of the sea, who
from time immemorial have compelled the respect of
the dwellers on the Continent. In matters of business
it is always an additional asset to be an Englishman,
the nationality by itself lays claim to a more distin-
guished kind of treatment. A Frenchman is to be
parleyed with; a Russian to be treated as a barbarian;
a Scandinavian to be ignored, and an Italian or Span-
iard may be slighted. But an Englishman !—The
great Prince Bismarck used to say: “ In Germany
when they see a Russian prince they say, Oh!—an
American millionaire" (millionaires had not been in-
vented in Bismarck's day), “Oh! oh!—and an Eng-
lish lord, Oh! Oh! Oh!—but a Silesian count is
greeted with Bah!”.
Mr. Tunstaple Wells was a democrat, well-dis-
posed, blunt, straightforward and business-like; Ros-
enthal was extremely polite.


96 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“Mr. Rosenthal,” said Wells, “I hear you repre-
sent Mr. Saarbrücken both with regard to his fortune
and with regard to his head- Well, I've come to see
you. Our interests, as far as that goes, are parallel.
I represent his lordship, the eighth Baron Faring-
don, till now known as Lord Julius Laking. He is
the murdered lord's heir-at-law; I hear that the late
Lord Faringdon's personalty has been left by his will
to the wife of your client. Is that so ?”
Rosenthal nodded.
“By common law the murderer loses his right to
inherit the property of the man who has been mur.
dered by him or at his instigation. I therefore ask
you two questions. Is there community of goods be-
tween Mr. and Mrs. Saarbrücken, and is one or both
of them guilty of the murder ? "
That was going straight to the point, thought Ros-
enthal, but his questioner was an Englishman, and
that explained all. Englishmen are supposed to go
straight to the point. Therefore Rosenthal answered
briefly:
“Sir, your first question I must answer in the
affirmative. There is community of goods between
Mr. Saarbrücken and his wife. The second, some-
what more intricate question, I answer in this way:
I have undertaken the defence of Mr. Saarbrücken,
therefore he is innocent."
“Ah!” said Mr. Wells, stretching out his legs.
“May I in return ask you,” Rosenthal went on,
“how much Lord Faringdon may be thought to have


THE INVESTIGATION
97
left, besides the entailed property, which does not
concern us here on the Continent?”
Mr. Wells calculated in his head; he could not
make it less than 120,000.
“Pounds ? ” asked Rosenthal.
To which Mr. Wells merely replied:“ Of course."
Rosenthal offered Mr. Wells a very long and
choice Havana.
Mr. Wells proceeded to light it.
“So then, my dear sir," said Wells from behind a
great cloud of smoke, “ your man is innocent. That
is pleasant for him, and pleasant for you too, as it
will make it easy for you to defend him and honoura-
ble to get him off. For me it is less pleasant, in so far
as it makes my clients lose a good round sum; and you
will admit that, since Lord Cecil is murdered, I am
in the position of a man who would prefer to see the
culprit found, but would prefer most of all that this
should be the means of bringing money to my clients."
Rosenthal had to admit that the case might be
looked at from that standpoint, especially by one who
represented the new Lord Faringdon. “ But,” he
added, “ in any case Mrs. Saarbrücken is innocent,
and the money is hers."
Mr. Wells drew at his cigar.
“Might it not be supposed,” he suggested, “that
Mrs. Saarbrücken herself had an interest in getting
rid of Lord Faringdon?”
“Then you don't know Mrs. Saarbrücken," inter-
rupted Rosenthal.


98 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“No, I don't," was the answer; "and for that
very reason I cannot insult the lady with my hypoth-
esis. I am only asking a question. You represent in
the first place Mr. Saarbrücken's defence. I know
that there has been talk of a divorce or something of
that sort."
Rosenthal thought to himself: where does he know
that from? but he consoled himself by thinking that
Englishmen got to know everything, and he said
nothing.
Mr. Wells continued: “We Lord Julius and the
other heirs—are willing to contribute to the costs of
Mr. Saarbrücken's defence, if thereby we could ob-
tain a positive result with reference to the question of
the inheritance."
“You mean ” said Rosenthal—he had a rapid
brain and had already seen through the plan.
Well, as far as that went, Mr. Wells did not mind.
Therefore he went on:
“Yes. You see, if Saarbrücken is innocent, as you
say he is—and if he is on bad terms with his wife,
as—other people say " (Mr. Wells had it from
Schaltz), “then we may suppose the possibility that
the lady has had a finger in the business, which of
course she may have had. This would raise an ex-
tremely interesting legal question as to Mrs. Saar-
brücken's right to inherit, which would form an ex-
cellent basis for an agreement, for which we shall
always be ready."
The idea appealed to Mr. Rosenthal only so far


THE INVESTIGATION
99
as Mr. Wells' willingness to pay the costs of the de-
fence was concerned. The house of Fürste and Wien-
ecke was not in a position to pay large fees, and the
English money market has the advantage that it
reckons in a large unit: the pound sterling. That was
good enough. The other side of the matter was less
inviting. Rosenthal believed in Saarbrücken's guilt-
lessness, and he had no doubt of Mrs. Saarbrücken's
absolute innocence. But he was a good man of busi-
ness, and he admitted that, if investigations were to
be made in that direction, it was just as well that they
should be conducted by him.
He smiled and showed his fine white teeth under
his glistening black moustache, as he said in a
friendly tone:
“I accept that."
Mr. Wells was a little surprised, but after all it
was his own proposal. Had he by any chance made
a slip? No. The meaning of it was, of course, that
the advocate did not believe in his client.
“Mr. Rosenthal,” he said, “I see you understand
me. We arrange a counter-investigation, and in this
you take the lead. I propose that you should dis-
cover everything that could weaken the suspicion of
your client's guilt. You must do more than this; you
must use your best endeavours to find out the real
culprit, and in the course of these endeavours you will
take into consideration the eventuality that I hinted
at just now. On this point you will work with us
from henceforward. Are we agreed?"


100 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
Rosenthal smiled. “You mean, Mr. Wells, that
Saarbrücken, who is to be divorced from his wife, will
not touch any of the legacy, whether he is guilty or
not guilty; but that she, if she can be shown to have
any complicity, will get nothing either. And it is this
last proof that your esteemed clients are prepared to
pay for with a—thumping fee."
“That's it," said Mr. Wells.
“Then we understand each other," added Ros-
enthal.
“Very well,” concluded Mr. Wells. “Then let
us look into the case. How many points of circum-
stantial evidence are there?”
“Seven,” said Rosenthal.
“That's a good lot," was Mr. Wells' opinion.
“What are they?"
Rosenthal took up a piece of paper. “First, Saar-
brücken was out at night at a time which probably
corresponds to that at which the murder was com-
mitted—more than that, a witness saw him in the
Park. Secondly, he either will not or cannot prove
an alibi. Thirdly, his wife is Lord Faringdon's heir-
ess, and he knew it. Fourthly, he is deeply in debt to
Lord Faringdon or his estate. Fifthly, his locket was
found on the scene of the crime. Sixthly, his dagger
fits the wounds, and seventhly, he is on the brink of
failure. That makes seven, doesn't it?"
“And yet you believe he is innocent," said Wells.
“Your faith is strong."
“Quite right,” said Rosenthal, “but not one of


THE INVESTIGATION 101
these circumstances, taken by itself, is of a nature to
involve his guilt."
“Of course not,” smiled Wells. “But you see,
my dear sir, if these things were certain, they would
no longer be circumstantial evidence but proofs, and
then neither you nor I would have to trouble our
heads with them.”
“That is just it," said Rosenthal, with a broad
smile. “You, Mr. Wells, must have a great interest
in seeing Mr. Saarbrücken found guilty, even if you
were forced to speak of a basis for an agreement, as
you so kindly hinted just now. You did not go to
Mrs. Saarbrücken and her friend the magistrate, Dr.
Sterner, who is doing his best to convict Mr. Saar-
brücken, did you? You came to me. And I am proud
enough to think that you did so because you believe
my case to be a good one. Am I deceiving myself?”
“Mr. Rosenthal,” said Wells shortly, “I am an
Englishman, and I go straight to the point. You
have opposed to you a man, a countryman of mine,
whom I can't stand. A disagreeable, elderly Tory
named Longland Hearne. Very well, that way is
barred. Our interests are diametrically opposed.
Mrs. Saarbrücken is strong in her alliances. You un-
derstand. I am honest with you."
Rosenthal bowed.
“And the practical proposal?” he asked.
“I leave that to you, who know the place."
“I thank you for your confidence," replied Rosen-
thal." And I hope you will dine with me to-day. I
d. jacken is are


102 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
should like to have seen your colleague; perhaps we
could have found a new basis for our operations. I
never go out of the way to win over my opponent
with friendliness.”
“You may spare yourself the trouble," said Mr.
Wells dryly. “Sir Longland Hearne has gone mo-
toring to-day to Cronberg with the magistrate, and
in all probability he is at this moment engaged in an
intimate conference with Sterner and his protégée,
your client's wife.”
“Ah," said Rosenthal. And he added: “Sterner
must retire from this case.”
“Or else he must be made impossible," said Wells.
Rosenthal made no reply.
“We must make sure of Schaltz,” he said. “He
is not particularly fond of his superior; he is a lower-
class man, but he has a certain position in the little
local society. Would you have any objection to meet-
ing him at dinner?”
“Mr. Rosenthal,” said Mr. Wells, “I am a
democrat; my father was a detective, like Mr.
Schaltz. Need I say more?”
Neither of them said any more, and that day
Schaltz dined exceedingly well at the most fashiona-
ble restaurant in Frankfort, in very good company.


CHAPTER SIX
D ROM Homburg to Cronberg the road goes
K through Oberurzel; it is about eight miles
1 long, with a gradual descent to Oberurzel and
from thence a gradual ascent to Cronberg. From
Cronberg it goes winding steeply up to Falkenstein,
where the sanatorium for consumption lies. It is a
fair, smiling landscape, bounded by the mountain
slopes of Taunus, with numberless houses and gar-
dens. Nearly in front of Cronberg lies the Imperial
castle of Friedrichshof, where the English-born Em-
press Frederick spent the last years of her life as the
widow of the Emperor of a hundred days, the white
Kaiser Friedrich.
The whole drive took less than half-an-hour. Ster-
ner was his own chauffeur; he drove slowly, because
his guest, who did not really care much for this
modern style of vehicle, wished it. There was there-
fore plenty of opportunity for conversation on the
way.
Sterner talked; he prepared Sir Longland for Mrs.
Saarbrücken's state of mind, dwelt upon her solitary
situation and assured him of his deep respect for her.
He did not go into further details of their acquaint-
103


104 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
ance; all he said was, that in former days he had
known her very well.
“The question before us, then," said the English
lawyer, “is this: is she innocent of Lord Faringdon's
murder? According to international practice, this
question is decisive as to her right to inherit.”.
“When you have seen Mrs. Saarbrücken," said
Sterner briefly, “ you will never again address that
question to anyone.”
Sir Longland Hearne bowed.
“ The next question is that of community of goods,
and here perhaps I may repeat what I have already
briefly alluded to. Lord Faringdon's will has been
drawn up according to English law and with English
legal conditions in view. Personally I know some-
thing of German law; I know that paragraph 1363
-you see, I can even remember the paragraph-of
the civil statute-book allows the husband the manage-
ment and enjoyment of his wife's fortune in case of
community of goods. I know, too, that paragraphs
1365 and 1369 of the same law are occupied with
the question of money or objects of value, which, for
instance, are devised by a testator to the wife alone;
and in this case they become her sole property, with-
out the husband having the slightest right over them.
The will we are interested in is not drawn up in such
a way that one can say definitely that it contains such
dispositions as to reservation; on the other hand,
however, it is not certain that the provisions de-
manded by German law for the withdrawal of such


THE INVESTIGATION 105
an inheritance from the husband's sphere of control
have been fulfilled. As you see, we have here very
good reasons for being cautious, for ..."
And while the sun shown over Oberurzel, over
curly-headed children playing by the roadside, over
cows and little pigs, over the whole landscape with
its smile of summer, Sir Longland Hearne went
deeper and deeper into the interesting case of conflict
between English and German law which was occa-
sioned by the will of the late Lord Faringdon.
Sterner steered his car carefully between the curly-
heads and the pigs; now and then he gave a nod, when
his learned guest said something very good; and now
and then he would have liked to interrupt him. Pass-
ing Friedrichshof he nearly ran over an old woman,
when Sir Longland said something more than usually
learned.
Then he closed the discussion with a brief remark.
“ In any case, we cannot think about the payment
of the legacy before the trial for murder is decided."
Sir Longland struck his hands together. “Lord!"
he said — “ By then the first preliminaries will hardly
have been put in order, unless German criminal pro-
cedure is extraordinarily slow."
“Now we're at Cronberg,” said Sterner; "there
is Falkenstein above us. Here we have to crawl up
slowly and look out. It will hardly do to discuss legal
points.”
Facing south, bathed in sun, lies the Falkenstein
establishment on the side of the Taunus mountains;


106 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
a large well-arranged sanatorium for tuberculosis.
Side by side in the spacious open-air corridors the
patients lie with their thermometers by them, quietly
hoping, occupied only in registering their fever and
noting the improvement that is promised them and
that comes so infinitely slowly.
When a stranger chances to visit the place and
walks erect and sunburnt between the rows of pa-
tients, their great, moist eyes are turned upon him as
though with displeasure. He feels like an intruder;
his health is an insult to this place, dedicated to suffer-
ing. Involuntarily he walks with noiseless tread,
speaks in a hushed voice, as though he were on for-
bidden ground.
And while the sun streams over the wooded
heights, over the valley with its roads and water-
courses, he feels the deep-drawn sigh of sickness
rising from the silent wards, where anxious, careful
mothers sit nursing by the bedside of imprisoned
youth.
Mrs. Saarbrücken's mother sat here in one of the
wards, which was jokingly called the “Monkey-
house," from a stuffed ape that was there. Her son
John lay in a long basket-chair, gradually sinking.
But the doctor, the chief of the establishment, still
gave a little hope.
Lizzie was staying with her mother at a little hotel
opposite the sanatorium. She spent the greater part
of the day with her brother. Here no one cared about
her husband's fate; each was occupied exclusively


108 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
brother's message that he and the English lawyer had
come to Falkenstein, Lizzie was unable to conceal her
joy. It had been agreed that they should meet at Dr.
Immermann's, and thither Sterner guided his car.
Lizzie received her visitors in Dr. Immermann's
drawing-room. The conversation was carried on in
English, which she spoke excellently; and thanks to
the practical English custom of using the same pro-
noun, you, in intimate as in formal address—whereas
the German uses Du to those who are nearest to him
and Sie in ordinary conversation-Sterner was able
to avoid disclosing to the English lawyer how well
he knew the handsome lady, without being compelled
to use the stiff third person plural which in his posi-
tion he would otherwise have had to do.
“ Sir Longland Hearne has come to talk about the
question of the legacy,” he said;" he and I are old
acquaintances, and you can have full confidence in
him.”
And Sir Longland Hearne began, in a solemn tone,
as is fitting when speaking to a bereaved person, to
enlarge upon his responsible duties. Without actually
quoting the civil statute-book, he nevertheless knew
how to throw such a colour of learning and technical
knowledge into his speech that it remained in all
essentials perfectly incomprehensible to Lizzie.
Sterner had to translate it into ordinary language;
he did so briefly and very clearly, but it was evident
that the question of money did not interest Lizzie in
the least.


110 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
him, I will not desert him. Later,-later we can talk
about it.”
Sir Longland shook his head. “ It does not seem
to me either, Dr. Sterner, that you in your position
of examining magistrate can undertake any kind of
legal work for Mrs. Saarbrücken, least of all of this
kind. Perhaps you will consider it an intrusion on
my part to say so, but I really think you cannot do it.
In England such a thing would be impossible, abso-
lutely impossible.”
“ Conditions are somewhat different here in Ger-
many,” said Sterner nervously.“ And besides, who
knows if the court, when the prosecution has been
decided upon, will entrust me with the investigation
of the case?”
Lizzie seized this.
“Then you will retire," she said warmly.
Sterner shook his head.
“If I am ordered to continue the investigation, I
shall continue it. Yes, I have even made up my mind
to use all my influence to prevent its being given to
anyone else. I want to see this case through."
Lizzie's eyes dropped.
Sir Longland interposed. “I too think it would be
best for you to complete what you have begun so ex-
cellently that I must compliment you highly upon it.
You understand, dear Mrs. Saarbrücken, that how-
ever terrible it may be for you personally, everyone
must wish to see this case carried through and justice
done."


112 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“No,” replied Sterner.
“ Then you are quite sure he is guilty ? " she asked.
“I am," he answered slowly and conclusively. “I
leave the circumstantial evidence out of the question.
Everything can be used against a man who is accused,
but the things that confirm my suspicion are the facts
that do not appear and can only be judged by you
and me."
“What do you mean?" she asked, looking at him
intently.
“ It is now three months since you asked him to
give you your freedom. You know he was quite
willing, and it only depended on formalities. Then
came his yachting at Cowes and his long visit to Far-
ingdon. When he returned from England he would
not hear a word of the divorce. Lord Faringdon had
told him of the will over their wine."
“Do you know that?”
“Yes, Sir Longland Hearne has told me; Faring-
don regretted it and on that account wanted to alter
the will—you know, he never intended to leave it all
to you; it was all a joke. Hearne dissuaded him from
altering what had once been settled. I believe it was
out of kindness for your mother and me, however
strange that may sound. Then Saarbrücken began to
hatch the plot he has now carried out. He's a used-
up, broken man and a coward. You know yourself
that he is what is called a good fellow-dissipated,
and self-indulgent, but apparently good-hearted; a
jovial companion, silly as long as things go well with


114 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
And such a man is your husband. Let us get rid of
him, Lizzie. I can do it, and I will do it!".
She kept her eyes fixed on the ground in deep
shame. “No— not that!” she whispered, shud-
dering.
"False compassion! How many more people shall
this fellow ruin before he is called to account? Good
Lord, so much that is good and noble comes to grief
without anyone holding out a helping hand, but a
poisonous fungus like this everyone will spare! It's
idiotic! Root it out—it's full of poison!”
Lizzie listened to him in silence; then she raised
her great, deep eyes and said:
“I know quite well, Fritz, that with you my wishes
have no weight. I do not wish to talk about what is
done with.—No-no—I will not. But, oh! I thought
I could forgive you everything—and now I feel that
if you do this, I shall never forgive you."
She turned rapidly and left the room to join the
others.
When Dr. Sterner soon afterwards drove the
learned English lawyer back to Homburg on his car,
the latter wondered at his legal discourse meeting
with no contradiction. He put it down to the fact
that he understood German law thoroughly-he had
studied for two years at Heidelberg.
And that made him feel proud.


CHAPTER SEVEN
CIR LONGLAND HEARNE was exceedingly
S pleased with his new client. He gave up his
plan of going straight home and was alto-
gether in such an amiable mood that he sent his card
by a waiter to Mr. Tunstaple Wells, solicitor, in
No. 55.
Mr. Wells, who had been seeing Frankfort to
some purpose, could hardly believe his eyes, which
blinked a good deal after the exertions of the day
before, and gave audience as became a radical, a
genuine democrat, who by the irony of fate found
himself representing a lord.
Sir Longland was immensely affable; he took his
seat in an armchair and crossed his legs with an air
of easy familiarity.
“My dear colleague, I was not very communica-
tive on the journey."
Mr. Wells gave a grunt.
“The reason was that I was afraid our inter-
ests might come in collision; and, as you know, I
dislike talking about a case until I know how it
stands. Now I know that everything is in order.
I have spoken to Mrs. Saarbrücken, a charming
. 115


116 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
lady, who has accepted the helping hand I offered
her."
“Helping hand, you greedy blood-sucker, why,
you'd skin her alive!” was Mr. Wells mental com-
ment, but outwardly he preserved a friendly smile.
Sir Longland continued: “I beg you to give my
respects to Lord Faringdon and tell him that we
Mrs. Saarbrücken and myself—are ready at all times
to meet every reasonable wish of his lordship's with
regard to the settlement of affairs."
“Isn't the lady's husband arrested for murder?”
asked Mr. Wells bluntly—it was the democrat up-
permost.
Sir Longland smiled indulgently: “Mrs. Saar-
brücken is unfortunate, but there is no one who would
venture to suspect her. Of that I am convinced.”
“And why, Sir Longland?”
“Because I know that his lordship's affairs are in
the hands of a sensible man who will not do anything
foolish. Am I not right, Mr. Wells ? "
Mr. Wells stuck his hands deep into his pockets
and thrust out his stomach. Mr. Wells was rather
corpulent than the reverse-a decided mistake; in
litigation the thin ones always come off best. That
is proved by experience.
He growled: “What if I apply to have the lady's
case investigated?”
Sir Longland gave another indulgent smile:
“ That is the public prosecutor's affair, my dear sir.
The procedure here is different, you know."


THE INVESTIGATION
117
“Thank you," answered the democrat;“I studied
two years at Heidelberg."
“So much the better; then you know all about it.
It would be no use. Besides, the question of the in-
heritance will be decided according to English law;
the testator's intentions will determine the court, the
papers are at my office in London, and I am very well
satisfied with the status quo. My client has applied
for a divorce, and even if her husband should be
proved innocent—as to which I know nothing at all
—that will hardly make her change her mind. Dr.
Sterner, the magistrate, has her complete confidence,
as he has mine, and he will see her through."
“And her husband, too,” interjected Mr. Wells.
“ Only the husband has to make a little difgression
past the scaffold into penal servitude.”
s more than any of us can tell,” said Sir
Longland, with a pious expression.
“Do you think the man is guilty ? ” asked Mr.
Wells with a sly wink in his eye.
Sir Longland thought nothing; he only trusted that
the never-failing powers would clear the matter up.
Mr. Wells became strongly persuaded that things
were far worse for Saarbrücken than either Rosenthal
or Schaltz supposed, and at the same time his dislike
of Sterner was redoubled.
“Do you think I ought to go and see the magis-
trate?” he asked.
"I think so," said Sir Longland very kindly.
Thereupon he invited Mr. Wells to lunch, which the


CHAPTER EIGHT
URING these two days the examination of
witnesses went on. No new evidence of im-
portance was brought to light, but Sterner
continued laying more and more stress on everything
that made against Saarbrücken, and the latter took
refuge in silence and obstinacy. Rosenthal on his side
was working to get the case put into other hands, and
trying to persuade the President of the assize-court
to appoint a new magistrate, Dr. Braun, to replace
Sterner.
There was one point of importance. Everyone
knew that Sterner had shown the wife of the accused
great consideration; Rosenthal guessed that there was
something between them, but beyond that he could
not go. With a barrister's power of seeing the case
from his own point of view alone, he had succeeded in
attaining to complete faith in Saarbrücken. But he
felt that it was no more than faith. Towards Sterner
he was very unfavourably disposed. Now he had the
right, as duly recognised counsel for the defence, to
see the prisoner without hindrance, and he used this
right in the widest sense.
Rosenthal, then, was sitting in the prisoner's cell,
119


120 I 20
THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
talking to Saarbrücken, who was dull and tired, but
seemed to take things calmly, as a man accepts the
inevitable. They were discussing the alibi.
“My dear friend,” said Rosenthal, “what you are
doing is madness. I can understand your refusing to
answer the magistrate, who is no friend of yours.
But to me you must tell all. And you must know that
I have the right to conceal anything you do not wish
disclosed, -indeed I am obliged to do so. Tell me,
then, where were you that evening between 12.20
and 1.30?”
“Mr. Rosenthal,” said Saarbrücken, “I cannot
tell you. A lady's honour is at stake. Even to save
my neck, I will not say a word that might compromise
her."
This produced an impression on Rosenthal. He
was himself a gallant man, a little naïve on this point,
where real ladies were concerned, but at the same
time inquisitive.
“You may be quite easy about telling me,” he said
in a rather low voice. “I give you my word as a
lawyer, more than that, as a man of honour, never
to breathe a word of it until you give your con-
sent."
“That I shall never do,” said Saarbrücken decid-
edly.
“Very well," was the answer; "then no one will
ever hear it; but I must know it."
Then Saarbrücken spoke.
“There is a lady concerned, a perfect lady."


122 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
trusted her. Marriage has not brought us any nearer
to each other, on the contrary, it has separated us.
There has been talk of a divorce, and I am convinced
that Lizzie was fond of Faringdon and wanted to
marry him. I see very well that this circumstance
makes against me. I am getting used to finding all
the points against me. ..."
Rosenthal interrupted:
“ And you were opposed to the divorce?"
“ Absolutely,” said Saarbrücken. “I knew Faring-
don, and I would not trust Lizzie to him, even if
other circumstances might induce me to consent to the
dissolution of our marriage. Besides, Lizzie was not
honest with me. And that is the awful part of my
fate. I feel that this man, who now holds my destiny
in his hand—this cold, hateful magistrate, Sterner-
was my wife's confidant in this matter."
“Ah,” exclaimed Rosenthal. “That's something.
How did those two come to know each other?”.
“I don't know," said Saarbrücken; “ I only know
that my wife's mother is at present staying at Dett-
weiler's Sanatorium at Falkenstein, where my wife's
brother is a patient, and that one of the doctors there
is married to Sterner's sister. She has met Sterner
there, but I am sure she met him long before I knew
her. You see, they both come from Kiel.”
Rosenthal wished to investigate this more closely,
and he determined to use the alliance with Mr. Wells
to collect everything he could which might throw
light on this side of the case.


THE INVESTIGATION
123
“Keep your spirits up," he said, as he gave Saar-
brücken his hand. “Your defence is in my hands; ..
treat this as the inevitable thing it is, and trust in me.”
Saarbrücken bowed his head and said nothing.
Rosenthal then left him.


CHAPTER NINE
R. STERNER in the course of these few
days had considerably increased the ma-
terial for the prosecution. He held exami-
nations with restless energy, ascertained one fact after
another and with a sure hand turned them all against
Saarbrücken, so that it was taken for granted in com-
mon talk, as well as in the newspapers and telegrams,
that Lord Faringdon's murderer had been caught,
and that, thanks to the magistrate's penetration and
perseverance, the case had been sifted both rapidly
and energetically. Saarbrücken's relations were as
though paralysed; and it so happened that just at this
time old Saarbrücken was struck down by an attack
of apoplexy, which soon made an end of his life. His
son, who succeeded to the old-established business in
Hamburg, had become involved before his father's
death in wild speculations, and soon after the news of
Helmuth Saarbrücken's arrest and the old man's
death, came tidings of a crash which put an end for
ever to the house of Saarbrücken. This was another
inducement for Rosenthal to make more sure of the
alliance with the Lakings of Roxley; but Mr. Wells
had been rather more communicative than necessary,
124


THE INVESTIGATION
125
and it could not be avoided that Sir Longland Hearne
came to hear of the campaign designed in a certain
quarter against the wife of the prisoner Saarbrücken,
with a view to casting suspicion upon her! Presages
and premonitory symptoms of this campaign might
be read in certain papers which stood in connection
with the powerful financial family of Rosenthal, and
Sterner was not ignorant of it, when Sir Longland
Hearne let fall some words about it. Nor did Sterner
place any confidence in Schaltz; he had seen that the
policeman, whose conduct was otherwise so correct,
held more communication than was seemly with Isi-
dor Rosenthal; and though this in itself could not be
called incorrect, since the counsel for the defence oc-
cupied an official position, still Sterner decided to re-
move Schaltz little by little from the very important
and confidential position in the case to which his
seniority entitled him, and which he had occupied
from the beginning. This intention did not escape
Schaltz, and it acted as a further inducement to him
to take the side of the defence. But a greater anxiety
than this to Sterner was the wife of the accused. It
was his duty to protect her; and while he himself
carefully kept her name and her doings out of the
documents of the case, he had also the task of coun-
teracting all the suspicion that the other side tried to
spread about her, and not only to counteract it, but to
annihilate once for all every shadow of suspicion.
The best person to aid him in this was herself, and
it was very natural that he should seek her help.


126 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
His days were fully occupied, but his evenings were
his own, and only two days after the visit he and
Hearne had paid to Falkenstein, he went out there
again, this time to talk to her and learn what she
thought and what she wished.
He understood quite well that she refused to think
of her husband as a murderer. He understood too
that she was just the woman to consider it desertion
and treachery if she were to proceed with the divorce
case while her husband was under arrest for murder.
But he thought that, now the ice was broken between
them he would be able by his personal influence to
make her change her mind and win her over com-
pletely to abandon the cause of Saarbrücken.
He went to see her at her home—she received
him, as usual, with some embarrassment, though
with far more confidence than the last time they
met.
He began at once to speak of the divorce and told
her openly that he was not unacquainted with this
affair, even before the murder. He knew Lord Far-
ingdon, and the latter, who was a talkative person,
had confided this very question to Sterner. More than
that even; the negotiations Lord Faringdon had con-
ducted with Lizzie, the steps he had taken with re-
gard to Saarbrücken in this matter, were the results
of consultations with Sterner.
Lizzie blushed when she learned this, but Sterner
treated these matters in such a calm and business-like
way that Lizzie was gradually won over by his quiet


THE INVESTIGATION 127
tone and began to discuss the question with him as
with a friend.
Sterner could feel that he had gained ground, and
this gave him courage to propose directly what she
had refused to listen to at their last meeting.
But here he met with determined opposition.
Armed with all the knowledge he had acquired as
magistrate, he directed his attack upon Saarbrücken,
exposed the shamefulness of his motives, the baseness
of his whole conduct, and called him straight out a
cowardly murderer.
But Lizzie shook her head and would not be-
lieve it.
“ But you don't know how the murder was com-
mitted,” she said.
“No and yes," answered Sterner. “I am an ex-
amining magistrate of some experience; you know I
have been expert at it since I was quite young. You
know I have always affirmed that it is an art which
requires talent, like anything else outside the ordinary
run. You yourself have often teased me about this
vanity of mine, as you called it.” i
Lizzie smiled, and Sterner could see that his words
called up memories in her. This warmed him, he
thought, as it must warm her. The bygone days were
no longer a bitter memory; without their speaking
of what had passed between them, the miracle had
happened, which happens to men and women as to
the plants in spring, when they seem to have died in
the cold of winter. Little buds appear and shoot into


128 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
leaves—wonderfully luxuriant in the sun's warmth;
what appeared to be dead comes to life. Sterner's
voice grew warmer, his eyes dwelt on the face he
knew so well, and all the past rose again within him,
prompting his words and giving his voice a new sound.
“This talent, then, I believe I possess. I am able,
from every little circumstance, from the words of
witnesses, from former experiences, to build up an
edifice; an edifice which, no doubt, is my own, but
which at the same time corresponds pretty closely
with what has actually happened.”
Lizzie leaned back and smiled to herself as she
listened.
“But in order to do this one must be quite sure of
one's materials; one must know what there is, and
what is made of it in the building. Facts are the tim-
ber, facts are the nails, but the completed work is due
to the builder's intelligence.—Well, I have told you
all this so often, you know-long ago."
Lizzie's face became suddenly serious.
Sterner continued: “ Therefore I will give you the
picture of this deed as I see it in the edifice I have
built up, and then, if you wish, you may try to show
me where in my work of construction I have made
use of material which is not taken from the store-
house of fact."
“I know nothing about all this,” she said.
“Yes, you do—and when I have spoken I want to
hear what you have to say. But first you must listen
to me.


THE INVESTIGATION
129
“It is a summer night, about half-past twelve.
You know the place, it is the Curhaus Park at Hom-
burg, by the cross-roads in front of the great clump
of rhododendrons. A man stands waiting, ambushed
behind the shrubbery. He is nervous, restless, he
keeps an eye on the cross-roads; he has carefully
chosen the place so that he can see a long way. At
night a man on the look-out can see further than one
who is going carelessly along the road. He looks at
his watch, and although it is dark, yet the summer
night is clear enough to enable him to see the posi-
tion of the hands by the twinkling light of the stars.
For he knows that the man he is waiting for will
come at a certain hour. He has no fear of his not
coming, for what brings the other to the spot is the
expectation of meeting a woman. The other is a mis-
erable fool, and this assignation is an empty whim,
but he lives for nothing but his empty whims, he is
rich and has no occupation, nothing to take up his
thoughts, if indeed he have any thoughts beyond
purely instinctive nerve-action. The man who is wait-
ing knows that he will come. He himself has told
him to come to this spot; he has been his messenger to
this woman, their go-between, and therefore his anx-
iety is due more to the fear of some one else chancing
to appear than of his victim failing him.”
“ How do you know all this?" asked Lizzie in a
husky voice.
“I know it,” said Sterner—"but you must not in-
terrupt me. He stands there because he desires an-


130 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
other's death. His own miserable prosperity is at
stake-the means of continuing an existence to which
idleness and dissipation have brought him; an exis-
tence he will not abandon, but which he will be
obliged to abandon, because the only thing that can
keep his head above water is gold easily come-by-
his own he has wasted long ago. The man he is wait-
ing for was his friend; he abused his friendship, as he
abused everything he came across; he got into debt to
this friend, and when the friend, in a capricious
mood, as was his wont, claimed his own again,
claimed it, not because he needed it, but because the
other had refused to set his wife at liberty and the
friend had a kindly feeling for the wife and was
anxious to do her a service—then he decided that his
friend should die. You know that this is the truth.
You know that on that very day he had given a
promise, a promise that he never had any intention
of keeping, since the death of his friend would not
only free him of a creditor, but at the same time,
through his marriage with the woman you know-
would make him the owner of his friend's great
fortune.
“It was such a plan as can be conceived by a brain
that is demoralised by drink and dissipation, con-
ceived by a man who has lost his better self in idle-
ness and no longer has the power of opposing whole-
some ideas to the criminal instincts that grow in all
of us from the instinct of self-preservation, and most
luxuriantly where this has become egoism.


THE INVESTIGATION 131
“It was a plan that was not the result of long
deliberation, but the last resort of a weak character,
formed at short notice and carried out before misera-
ble fear had deprived it of its power, before the wine-
soaked brain had become clear again.—And this plan
was carried out. A chance circumstance, a passer-by,
a carriage, a delay or a casual meeting might have
hindered it. But the powers above did not interfere.
Along the road which he was watching came his
friend, rapidly, full of expectations of the meeting,
a little anxious, a little uncertain, but occupied only
by the one idea—he has brought me a message from
her that she will expect me there.
“Then the assassin retires into the bushes—the
other does not see him. Had he seen him, perhaps the
deed would have been averted, for the assassin is a
coward; but he is only on the watch for her, and as he
goes past the little dagger gleams out from the bushes.
“A murder has been committed.
“Now all is changed from what it was a moment
ago; an accomplished fact has appeared from the
chaos of possibilities, born of accidents, but now be-
come a definite thing, a thing that will set its mark
upon human actions and human destinies. The assas-
sin glances about him, and now he acts instinctively,
rapidly, because the chance that before might have
prevented his deed, a passer-by or a carriage, would
now deliver him as a murderer into the hands of
justice. He flings the body into the bushes and goes.
“He sees that a woman is approaching on the


132 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
road on the other side of the shrubbery; he does not
look up, but hurries on with bowed head, not straight
home by the nearest way, but round by circuitous
paths so as to put time between his deed and the
moment when he must speak to his fellow-men once
more.
“That is how the murder of Cecil Laking was
committed, and he who murdered him was Helmuth
Saarbrücken!”
Sterner ceased speaking.
Lizzie sat gazing before her; her cheeks were
burning, her eyes were fixed on empty space, as
though she were trying to picture to herself the scene
he had just described in words.
Sterner dropped into a lighter tone.
“In the old days you used to call me a poet of
crime—don't you remember? Well, perhaps you
were right. And now, with your bright, clear eyes,
you must see and point out to me where I have let
what you call my lyrical sense carry me away from
the solid earth into the clouds—where poets soar."
She looked at him, and a tone of sadness came into
her voice.
“My bright eyes, Fritz, are darkened—and I can-
not see clearly any more—sorrow has spread a cloud
before my eyes. Oh, how much, how much is
changed since we last talked together as we are talk-
ing this evening!”
Sterner bowed his head; then looked up with a
sharp, rapid glance.


THE INVESTIGATION 133
“ Try, Lizzie—you begged me to spare him, you
begged me to stand aside; very well, I am going to
give you a chance. Tear up the picture I have drawn
for you, tear it to tatters; show me that in building
up my edifice I have used materials that were not
brought from what I called the store house of fact,-
or if you cannot do that, then let me pull the edifice
to pieces bit by bit, and show you step by step where
I have found the facts that made it."
She nodded.
“The place is certain enough,” Sterner went on.
“They found the body there, it cannot have been
brought there from another place. It has not been
dragged along, the clothes prove that. The marks of
blood on the clothes, the position of the body, every-
thing, in short, bears witness that what took place
was only a sudden jerk, a throw, not a long and diffi-
cult dragging. With this in view, I have instituted
far-reaching investigations, and the doctors agree
with me on this point. The traces found on the grass-
border are also clearly in favour of this conclusion.
There are a few deep marks, deep prints of a man's
feet, and no blood—this question admits of no doubt.
“Nor is there any doubt about the weapon used,
or the way it was used, how the blow was struck—all
these points were fully ascertained at the post-mor-
tem examination.
“As to Lord Faringdon's person there is no doubt
either; and that he went to an assignation I know."
She interrupted: “You know that?”


134 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“Yes,” said Sterner;" I know it. He told me that
himself; he told me himself that Saarbrücken was his
go-between with the woman he was to meet, or
thought he was going to meet."
“Who was it?" asked Lizzie..
"I don't know—these rakes and idlers are so
chivalrous, you see. A lady's name! It is sacrilege to
mention it, but it is quite gentlemanly conduct to
violate the rights of matrimony or to practise decep-
tion on another man. They have their own code,
these noblemen, their code of honour, as they call it."
“And you have no idea who it was?”
Sterner shrugged his shoulders. “There are plenty
of women who would meet a man like that. Here in
this society of useless drones the amusement they call
flirtation flourishes; here pleasure-seeking men and
women assemble from all parts of Europe to lead
what is called fashionable life—the life out of
which the industrious people of Homburg get their
living and which they would not see done away with
for anything, because it is what supports them. How
do you expect me to be able to pick out from among
all these commonplace, over-dressed women the one
whose name was made use of that evening—for we
cannot even be sure that she thought for a moment
of going any further than what she would have con-
sidered innocent flirtation. And Lord Faringdon's
code of honour, which forbade him to mention her
name, must also have forbidden him to let anyone
but his pander know what there was between them.


THE INVESTIGATION 135
On this point Saarbrücken alone can furnish informa-
tion; I have tried to make him speak, but he is silent :
-perhaps because his code of honour is the same as
that of his murdered friend. On these matters we
bourgeoise people have much to learn."
“But if you knew this, you must have spoken to
Cecil on the very day—perhaps on the very evening."
Sterner frowned. “Keep me outside it, Lizzie. I
could tell you more if I wished, but I know that you
will 'fight' to save him—you have told me so your-
self. People often fight for things that are worth un-
speakably little. Therefore I cannot take you wholly
into my confidence. ...".
“I do not wish to be importunate,” she said curtly.
“It was you who came to me, not I who came to
you."
“ Lizzie," he said warningly, “ you are not speak-
ing like yourself. But you must understand me. I
want to give you an opportunity of saying all that a
good woman, whose mind is pure, can say about what
I told you. On the points I have mentioned at present
you have nothing to say. It is a question now of how
much I know. I know, for one thing, that Saar-
brücken was seen that evening at that spot. It was
not I that saw him. It was a witness, a woman
named Nathalia Stolzi, who was in service at the cot-
tage near the scene of the murder, who states that she
saw him.-I might have doubted that; I never trust
implicitly to what others have seen; I know that un-
fortunately witnesses are often mistaken. But since I


THE INVESTIGATION 137
as I do; and it is not worth while now to dwell upon
the smaller outward facts. The picture is burnt in
upon my brain, I can tell you—speak if you wish. I
don't believe you can erase its letters of fire.”
Sterner ceased, and Lizzie shook her head.
“And yet, in spite of all this, you really know
nothing,” she said. “So much may have happened
that you cannot guess, that you have no idea of; and
so much may have happened differently—it is impos-
sible for you to follow it all. You were not there-
you have seen nothing.".
Sterner smiled.
“Is that all, Lizzie? Can't you find any objection
at all to make, can't you attack my conclusions on a
single point? This is much too easy a victory for me.
And you were saying that you would 'fight' to save
him!”
She raised her head and looked at him with the
pure, frank eyes he knew so well.
“I know very well that I don't know people's
thoughts, and especially their evil thoughts, as you
do. Still, I know this man—no, you mustn't frown-
he is my husband. It is true that I have wished to be
freed from my marriage tie, that I still wish to be
freed, as soon as he is out of danger. It is true that
he has acted disgracefully towards me, more dis-
gracefully perhaps than I am aware of. You were
right in what you said when we met this evening.
But I too am to blame, I married him without affec-
tion—I did not love Helmuth Saarbrücken when..."


THE INVESTIGATION
139
stake, Lizzie, Saarbrücken is not the only one con-
cerned in this case; it concerns you too. Your name,
your pure, innocent self shall not be dragged into all
the foulness and misery that clings like a slimy weed
to such a deed. Lizzie, you shall not be dragged into
this filthy tangle before the gaping, inquisitive crowd.
I can stop that, and I alone. I will protect you from
yourself. I will force this wretch to his knees, I will
wring from him the confession of his cowardly deed,
that with one word will clear up the case and make it
short. Can't you see that all the slimy octopus-arms
that stretch themselves out from such a case' as this
have been seeking for you to drag you into it? You,
the heiress to the murdered man's money, you who
have never given money a thought for your own sake
—you, who have always lived for others. And then,
Lizzie-I myself !”
She raised her head: “You?”
“Yes, 1.—Why do you think I have come out
here in the past week, since you have been here? Why
have I sought you, who avoided me, not because you
were angry with me, but because you ..."
She stood up.
“Fritz,” she said, “not a word of that now."
“As you will," said he. “But to protect you I
shall keep a firm hold on this case; nothing shall hap-
pen but what I will; and the others, Rosenthal and
the hungry Englishman, shall have no chance of
founding their defence of the miscreant on an attack
upon you."


140 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
“How do you know—?" she asked.
“That they will do that? I know it from Hearne.
Hearne is a clever man, he talks a lot of law, but less
gossip than the other, the plebeian Wells; but never-
theless he hears a good deal. No, before the decision
as to who shall conduct the investigation, while the
case is still fresh, it shall be settled—and settled by
me."
“And you won't promise me to retire ?"
She looked at him beseechingly.
“You won't promise me, when I, who never ex-
pected to have to ask you anything, beg you so im-
ploringly?”
“Yes, Lizzie,” he said, “I will retire the mo-
-ment I feel myself that I am not the right man
to conduct the case. I promise you that—at that
moment I shall retire. But you must not expect it
to happen, nor must you hope for it, if you have
... friendship for me."
She said nothing.
Sterner rose.“ It is late," he said; " and I have a
lot of things to see to.”
She made no attempt to detain him.


CHAPTER TEN
N HE examination of the prisoner Saarbrücken
' which Dr. Sterner held the day after his
visit to Cronberg will long be remembered
in the legal annals of the good town of Homburg.
The advocate Rosenthal was summoned, but did not
appear; however, he had instructed police-commissary
Schaltz to be there and to take in everything.
Schaltz was present in his official capacity; he sat
in the assistant's high-backed chair, motionless, stiff
and straight as a figure on the base of a Kaiser Wil-
helm monument.
It was an examination that lasted for eighteen
hours !
Sterner went through the case from the beginning,
point by point. Saarbrücken received permission to
sit down, was removed while some chance witnesses
were heard, was brought back again and listened to
the reading of their evidence.
Evening came.
Then, after a short pause during which he took a
few mouthfuls of food, Sterner began the regular
examination. And it was this that made Schaltz
shudder.
141


142 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
Sterner, as usual, was calm, taciturn, and his eyes
shown through his glasses, stern and cold; but that
evening a slight flush burned in his cheeks, and his
hand shook a little when he wrote a chance word or
sentence on the paper that lay before him.
Sterner would overcome Saarbrücken's opposition;
he leaned back in his chair, while his cold eyes
searched the face of the prisoner standing before him.
Saarbrücken stood.
Schaltz felt that the struggle was unequal. Before
the magistrate stood this tall man, not yet accustomed
to the atmosphere and life of prison, but cowed by
detention under iron rules and strict discipline. The
spoilt rich man's son placed where life's sunshine
never is seen, where it is cold and the soul shudders.
He was pale, his eyes blinked uneasily, his voice
sounded low like a muted violin. It seemed as though
he had only the one word No left, and yet it was his
enemy's object to force another—Yes—from his lips.
. There sat Sterner, throned in his authority, lord
of life and death—free to adjourn when he wished,
free to go where he liked, armed by the might of his
office, sure of his case, certain that the path he was
following was the right one, firmly determined not
to leave off before the No was turned into a Yes."
His will strained his muscles, he caught every ac-
cent, every quiver of the prisoner's voice. This man
must be able to see into his victim's brain, to see where
the Yes and the No were fighting in the last struggle
to save his life-a life that now consisted of days of


THE INVESTIGATION
143
disconsolate inactivity and nights of sleepless unrest
between naked walls behind prison gratings.
Did Sterner then believe that this man was the
murderer?
Schaltz shuddered.
Sterner gathered himself for the great effort; he
would ride down suspicion, like a knight in clanking
armour brandishing the sword of justice.
He spoke shortly and was sparing of words. It
was the same thing as before: circumstance linked to
circumstance, a firm edifice built up of clear thought,
while his eyes gleamed like steel blades. But Schaltz
could see that he could not accomplish what he de-
sired. His anger was rising. Before him stood this
man, tall and powerful but sallow and dull, whose
only word was No. And this No became a wall upon
which every attack was shattered, beaten off again
and again. It was not defiance; better if it had been,
a granite wall of defiance that would strike sparks
from the weapon of the assailant. But it was silence,
heavy, unresisting silence, upon which no impression
could be made..
Hour after hour went by, and the Town Hall clock
struck its slow, hesitating strokes. Sterner's anger
was rising, it grew beyond his control, enveloped him
in clouds so that he no longer saw clearly. And now
he could understand how judges in the old days sent
for the torturer, had the prisoner stretched upon the
rack while the hangmen's men turned the screws till
his limbs cracked and broke, while spikes were driven


144 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
into his flesh, which was torn and slit till the blood
ran over the edge of the rack upon the floor, thick,
loathsome and slippery.
There must be an end to this.
Sterner's voice was thick, he no longer spoke, he
whispered the words. Everything had vanished, his
conclusion, all his circumstantial evidence, all his
postulates. Nothing was left but this: Confess that
you are Lord Faringdon's murderer.
The hours went by. At last Sterner remained
silent for a quarter of an hour at a time; then he
would look up and whisper, with a piercing glance
into the prisoner's eyes, which wandered listlessly
about the room: “ Confess that you are Lord Faring-
don's murderer!”
And again the hours went on.
Now it was only: Confess—will you confess?
Nothing more.
Saarbrücken stood as though riveted to the floor.
He no longer thought at all, he scarcely felt. He
wondered himself why he did not fall to the ground,
lie down on the floor. But he did not; he did nothing.
But there must be an end to it—there must be an
end. And if he stood a little while longer, perhaps
he would fall without being able to help it, and then
they would carry him away. His life was at stake.
But he stood-he stood while the clock struck its
dragging strokes hour after hour, and the whispered
suggestion came again and again: Confess-confess.
Now he no longer knew what it was he had to con-


THE INVESTIGATION 145
fess; all had gone from him, all the past, everything
that had happened till now-it was all gone.
But the night was wearing away.
Then Sterner sprang up, sent for the gaoler and
made him lead the prisoner quickly up and down the
room, brutally, so as to shake the drowsiness out of
him, while he himself walked backwards and for-
wards before the bar with uneasy haste.
It must be finished—he had given his word that it
was to be the last examination.
Then he stood before Saarbrücken, as though
gathered for a spring; his voice grated harshly and
sharply in the silence of the room.
“ I've had enough of this, Mr. Saarbrücken. Now
I'll make you confess. Step by step I've brought out
the facts against you, wrung from you word by word
the indications of your crime. Now I'll have you con-
fess. I have spoken calmly, sharply, angrily, gently
and quietly. You won't? You think you can oppose
dull defiance to my will. You are mistaken, Saar-
brücken, and I shall show you that you're mistaken.
This examination has lasted for ten hours, and you
think that if only you keep silence I shall be tired out
and let you go. But you're mistaken. ... I do not
tire. I am strong and I shall stay. You are reeling
with fatigue, you're hungry, you're thirsty. Very
good. You shall reel, you shall suffer hunger and
thirst, and even if you fall senseless to the ground, I
shall have you supported by these men. You shall not
leave this place until you have confessed your crime.
mCIL


146 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
CSN,
Your life is forfeited to justice. Whether you die
now or later is of no importance—but you shall not
leave this place until you have spoken—you hear.”
“This is torture," Schaltz muttered between his
teeth.
Saarbrücken tottered, but the gaoler stepped up
and supported him, pushing him against the bar.
Sterner brought his face near the prisoner's: “Do
you hear?—you shall not leave this place until you
speak—or die."
Schaltz clenched his hands till the nails entered his
flesh.
· But a glimmering thought rose up in Saarbrücken's
head, uncertain and faint in outline.-It seemed to
be bursting his brain, it made him mad; he must get
rid of it, he must purchase rest.—He felt that for
one single moment he must be free.
He took a step backwards—threw back his head
and stepped so that it pained his knees and ankles.
Torturer," he exclaimed hoarsely—“torturer!
Is it Lizzie, who is making you hunt me to death?
Take her and be damned, and leave me in peace.”
It was the first time Lizzie's name had been men.
tioned in any of the examination.
Sterner shrank back.
Schaltz was listening intently.
Sterner pulled himself together, turned sharply
round and threw himself into the magistrate's chair.
For a few minutes there was a deep, breathless
silence.


THE INVESTIGATION
147
Then Sterner spoke again, quietly, in a business-
like tone, but sharp as a needle.
“Do you wish this outburst added to the docu-
ments? I must point out to you that you have the
right to do so. Do you wish to have added to the case
all that has passed between you and your wife—to
have it all told to the gaping mob? If you wish it,
your wish shall be fulfilled. I have kept your wife
outside this case. It depends upon you whether she
is to be dragged into it or not.
“ I'm quite ready to begin over again."
Sterner picked up the documents that were lying
before him on the table.
“ There are women enough named in these papers.
Women enough whose names throw light upon your
life. There are women enough named here who
throw light upon him whom you murdered, and the
life you led, while she, your wife, was chained to you
and could not obtain her freedom, in spite of her
prayers. If your last resource is to bespatter her-
very well. You shall have your will."
Saarbrücken drew a quick, panting breath.
Sterner was sitting back in his chair and playing
with his glasses.
But the atmosphere of the room was relieved—the
sweat broke out upon Schaltz's forehead and his
hands unclenched themselves.
The spell was broken.
Once more it was men who were speaking.
Schaltz turned and looked at Sterner. His face


148 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
was as before, but his lips quivered, and his eyes were
not so firm.
So there was a contest between these two men—a
contest for a woman.
Saarbrücken spoke again—drawling a little, in a
far-off tone, but clearly.
“You wish it so, not I. All this is your work, not
mine; leave me in peace. I am innocent. Let the facts
decide.-1-will-not-speak.”
Sterner rose—took up the papers—went to the
back of the room, turned sharply and stared at Saar-
brücken.
“Very well, then tell me at any rate where you
were that night between 10.20 and 1.30. You have
hitherto refused to answer that question. Answer it
now, and I have done."
“I shall not say," was the brief, hoarse answer.
“You were with a mistress."
Saarbrücken made no reply.
Sterner again stood before him, spoke right in his
face, whispering, so that Schaltz scarcely heard his
words.
“You enticed him to an assignation with her."
Saarbrücken turned pale and tottered.
Then he said hoarsely, finding the words with diffi-
culty: “ Do what you will-my lips are closed-
closed till death."
Schaltz stared at Sterner.
The magistrate took a step back; it seemed as
though his muscles were relaxed, it was as though an


THE INVESTIGATION
149
entirely new resolution, an entirely new plan came
upon him.
He was at that moment miles away from the scene,
and it seemed as though everything became new to
him.
There was deep silence in the room.
Then Sterner closed the examination and ordered
the gaoler to remove the prisoner to his cell.
Schaltz stared open-mouthed at Sterner, as the lat-
ter, without saying a word, left the room with a
light, rapid step.
Day was now dawning.


152 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
," And now you agree with Mr. Rosenthal," inter-
rupted the Chief Justice. “Do you then consider
Saarbrücken innocent ? ”
“No,” said Sterner. “I look upon him, now as
formerly, as Lord Faringdon's murderer. My suspi-
cions have been confirmed, were confirmed still more
strongly by the exhausting examination I held yester-
day. But the personal consideration which has now
been dragged into the case has shown me where my
place is. It is not in the magistrate's seat. I have
never yet failed of my duty, and I never will, so long
as His Majesty the Emperor and his Government
continue to honour me with the position of a German
magistrate. But for that very reason I ask to be
allowed to retire from a post which I cannot hold
with a clear conscience."
“You must explain this more fully, my good Ster-
ner," said the Chief Justice in a friendly tone.
Sterner cleared his throat. “ The case has now
reached a point where the examining magistrate no
longer has so very much to bring to light. In my
opinion there can be no question of forcing Saar-
brücken into confession. He takes refuge in stolid
defiance and silence. I went as far as a modern mag-
istrate can go, so far that a great part of the Press
would have raised a cry of 'torture' if it had been
represented in court. And yet I can affirm that I was
at least as hard, if not harder, on myself than I was
on the prisoner. It was no use.
“The evidence can be widened, a lot can be made


THE INVESTIGATION 153
out of the prisoner's domestic relations, a romance
can be spun about the women he has known, a won-
derful amount of material can be got together for the
newspaper reporters and the inquisitive, scandal-lov-
ing public. The one who will have to pay for all this
will be the absolutely innocent wife of the accused.
I have purposely kept her outside the case, from a
conviction that thus I was acting rightly. But yester-
day it became clear to me that this point of view of
mine—is a personal point of view. We magistrates
are responsible not only to our superiors but to the
public for our official actions. Very well, I am ready
to take this responsibility; it does not alter my view
of the case, but I do not wish to bind the Court
thereby.
“There was a talk before of Dr. Braun's taking
over the case. Dr. Braun is a capable man, I will
make way for him; what is more, I request that he
may replace me.”
The Chief Justice had been listening attentively to
Sterner's long speech. He merely gave a nod, saying:
“Then it shall be as you wish.”
Sterner rose.
“Do you wish to make any further communica-
tion ? " asked the Chief Justice.
“No," was the answer. “What I know is down
in the documents of the case.”
“ All of it? ” asked the Chief Justice.
“All that seems to me to be of interest to the case.
But of course I am ready to acquaint my esteemed


154. THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
colleague with the case and to go through its details
with him."
The Chief Justice nodded.
“ Dr. Braun is at present engaged at the High
Court; if you like, we can go to his department. I
shall at once give orders for the drawing-up of the
necessary documents.”
That ended the interview.
Dr. Braun was a serious young man, conscientious,
rather stolid and filled with genuine admiration for
Sterner's scientific works. Legal colleagues are not
always over-ready to recognise each other's capabili-
ties; Braun's loyalty made it easier for Sterner to
make way for him. This was a part of Rosenthal's
plan; but if the clever advocate had been able to see
the result of his proposal, he would certainly have
wished he had mentioned some other man, who would
have re-opened the case from the beginning more in-
dependently rather than followed docilely in the steps
of his predecessor.
Dr. Braun and Sterner were soon of one mind, and
it was agreed that the new magistrate should visit
Sterner at Homburg on the following day and receive
the case from his hands, with all the explanations
necessary for its comprehension.


CHAPTER TWELVE
TR. TUNSTAPLE WELLS called on Ros-
enthal to say good-bye. Mr. Wells was
adverse party had brought him no advantage; there
was plenty of work waiting for him at home, and the
next of kin at Rigsby Abbey had asked him to return.
To be sure it was pleasant and tempting enough to
watch the English nobility disporting themselves in
theless too good a democrat to be able to endure for
long the sight of aristocratic loafing—as he called the
tennis and flirtation under the lofty chestnut trees.
thoughts were altogether taken up by the piece of
news he had received from an official quarter that
same morning; that Sterner had retired from the case
by his own wish.
Rosenthal had been to see the Chief Justice, but
that official was cold and precise. He had made use
of the backstairs of the court, as an advocate must
sometimes. Those he spoke to shared his surprise,
but knew nothing. He had sent for Schaltz, but that
worthy had not arrived.
155


156 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
And now Mr. Tunstaple Wells was sitting in the ad-
vocate's comfortable armchair, smoking a strong cigar.
They talked of the great event.
“What do you think about it?" asked Wells.
Rosenthal gave a knowing smile. “You see, my
dear colleague, a magistrate has to form a hypothesis
and work it out till he arrives at certainty. But an
advocate's method is different; he must first make
sure of his case and then produce facts to prove it.
I am not going to waste my time trying to guess why
Sterner has suddenly given up the case of his own ac-
cord. No, what I want to find out is how he did it,
and I shall be much surprised if this does not furnish
me with the basis for my defence of Saarbrücken."
Wells smoked on. “It seemed to be a complicated
business," he said.
Rosenthal showed all his teeth. “I wouldn't give
it up for a thousand marks. Oh, you'll see what it
will become in my hands; it will grow and spread like
a wonderful tree, like a southern palm, sir. And in
this wilderness of circumstantial evidence an oasis will
shoot up from the ground, which shall give refresh-
ment to all the camels of Germany."
“And Great Britain too, I hope," laughed Wells.
“ You might include my friend Sir Longland among
the camels. Me too, if you like, for I don't under-
stand a word of it all yet."
“ You will soon, you will soon,” said Rosenthal,
laughing. “Now you are going back to Merry Eng-
land with the special task of finding out why Mrs.


THE INVESTIGATION 157
Saarbrücken was made legatee under Lord Faring-
don's will. That is a question Sterner has not touched.
He has been extraordinarily delicate where this lady
was concerned. Possibly he has his reasons for that,
but these reasons do not bind you and me. Mr.
Wells, I expect from you a detailed statement of
everything that may throw light on this point; and
if it will kindle your ardour, let me add that, the more
positive evidence you can produce, the broader will
be the basis of the agreement which has for its ob-
ject the decision of what practical effect is to be given
to Lord Faringdon's will. The idea was yours to
start with, you know, and therefore its execution
ought to appeal to you especially.”
Wells nodded, and thus it was agreed. Mr. Wells
took his leave and left Homburg, feeling really
rather impressed by his German colleague, very in-
quisitive about the whole business, somewhat cool
towards Sir Longland Hearne, and, as to his feelings
towards Dr. Sterner, he did not say good-bye to him.
Schaltz was Isidor Rosenthal's next visitor. On
the same day as Sterner had applied to the Chief Jus-
tice, Schaltz, with a true presentiment of what was in
the air, had asked for and obtained leave from his
direct superior, Herr von Bitter. He had announced
this fact to Sterner, striking his heels together as
often as he could, to irritate the magistrate. The noc-
turnal examination had disgusted Schaltz, and he
was now thoroughly exasperated with Sterner. He
had paid a visit to the prison to see Saarbrücken. The


158 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
latter had now fully recovered his equanimity. The
strain of the night was over; he was calm, composed,
a little callous. Schaltz noticed this, and with a po-
liceman's habit of following a preconceived opinion,
had determined on the course to pursue. Saarbrücken
was innocent, and the more circumstances pointed to
his guilt, the more would Schaltz insist upon his in-
nocence. It had now been decided that the prelimi-
nary examination should be conducted by one of the
magistrates of the criminal court; but if this took
place, Sterner would have nothing more to do with
the case. That was all Schaltz could make of the
magistrate's proceeding. Meanwhile the defence
would have to try to interest the Englishman, Wells,
by insisting on the connection between Saarbrücken's
innocence and the prospects of the English heirs; and
on this ground Schaltz must operate against Sterner,
who clearly enough was doing all he could to assist
Frau Saarbrücken directly.
Schaltz never remembered having a prisoner he
liked better than Saarbrücken, and he had honestly
forgiven him the trouble he gave at his arrest.
The conversation between Schaltz and Saarbrücken
dealt first with the affairs of the firm, and on this
point Schaltz was able to reassure the merchant by
telling him of the liquidation; he also promised to
take a message to the advocate, asking him to go to
the prison and grant Saarbrücken an interview,
whereof the latter was greatly in need.
He discharged this errand, and Rosenthal received


THE INVESTIGATION
159
him kindly. He got Schaltz to give him an account
of the nocturnal examination, and from the indignant
tone in which the report was made, he judged the
depth of Schaltz's dislike of the magistrate. It
pleased him to hear that Schaltz had applied for and
obtained leave, and in a friendly tone he suggested
that the policeman should spend his leave in places
where detailed information could be obtained, partly
about Dr. Sterner, and partly about Mrs. Lizzie
Saarbrücken.
“You see," said the advocate, “that is where the
solution of the riddle lies. Sterner gives way out of
consideration for the wife of the accused; and we
must bear in mind Saarbrücken's violent words, when,
as you have just told me, he even swore at the magis-
trate. We ought also to remember Sterner's attitude,
and until I have arrived at facts to explain all this, I
shall not commence work upon the defence. Now let
us first see whether Dr. Braun, who is a docile ad-
mirer of the great master, Sterner, will try to strike
out new paths. Personally, I don't think he will.
Let me hear once more what it was Sterner said to
Saarbrücken at the finish, or at least, as much of it as
you could make out."
Schaltz went through the scene again, describing
how Sterner asked Saarbrücken for his alibi.
Rosenthal frowned.
Supposing Saarbrücken had really mentioned a
woman's name to the magistrate ? Supposing he had
abandoned his chivalrous attitude in this matter?


160 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
But Schaltz, who had been present at all the ex-
aminations, relieved the advocate of this fear. Ros-
enthal did not want to see Saarbrücken lose his
romantic lustre—it would be a point that would have
its effect in the speech for the defence—and as far as
the alibi was concerned it did not make any difference,
since Saarbrücken did not deny that he had passed
the Park in the course of his midnight stroll. “Let
me hear the words,” he asked; “the magistrate's
words."
Schaltz shook his head. “I could not catch them,
the magistrate spoke very low, but I thought he said
something about an assignation with her.”
Rosenthal started.
Supposing Sterner in some other way had found
out something about her, “her” could not here be
Frau Saarbrücken, who was in Frankfort or perhaps
at Falkenstein at the moment in question. “Her "
could only mean another person—but how in the
world had Sterner found out about her?
And while Schaltz sat stiff and unintelligent in the
deep armchair, which was little adapted to his mili-
tary attitudes, the advocate's brain conceived the plan
of his masterly defence.
But of that he said not a word to anyone. He gave
Schaltz his orders and let him go, well supplied with
the means of carrying on an investigation on behalf
of the defence, as they said—against Sterner, would
have been more correct.
But even Isidor Rosenthal did not say that.


CHAPTER THIRTEEN
R. BRAUN was sitting in Sterner's study,
buried deep in the documents of the case.
Step by step Sterner took up the evidence
he had collected and went through it.
“My suspicion was aroused by the circumstance
that I knew Lizzie Saarbrücken to be heiress to Lord
Faringdon's fortune. I also knew, from a chance
conversation with Faringdon, that Saarbrücken was
aware of the fact. In addition to this, Saarbrücken
was ruined, Lord Faringdon knew this, had already
lent him considerable sums, and had at last refused
to lend him any more. Through my brother-in-law
at Falkenstein I had met Frau Saarbrücken, whose
mother is staying at the Sanatorium to look after
her son, a patient there. I knew her in days gone
by. I have not mentioned this in the documents;
it does not concern the case. I knew that she want-
ed to get a divorce from Saarbrücken, whose con-
duct, as we are informed by a number of witnesses,
was anything but blameless. Saarbrücken vigor-
ously opposed the divorce. There is community
of goods between the couple, and by the death of
Lord Faringdon they come in for a very consid-
161


162 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
erable legacy. In this I saw the motive for the
crime.
Dr. Braun silently acknowledged his colleague's
acuteness with a bow.
Sterner continued:
“I had him arrested at once, and summoned his
wife to the preliminary examination, when it ap-
peared at once that she knew nothing of the matter.
I have tried to atone for my somewhat precipitate be-
haviour towards her, and in the course of the exami-
nations I have kept her name out of the case. Per-
haps you will differ from me on this point. It will
now be for you to decide it. I shall make no attempt
to influence you: follow your own judgment.”
Sterner threw a sharp glance at his colleague over
his glasses. Dr. Braun bowed politely, and Sterner
could see that on this point his successor would follow
in his footsteps. He was glad of it for Lizzie's sake,
and he said no more of the matter.
“The further development of the case strongly
confirmed my suspicions. The locket that was found
by the body belonged to Saarbrücken; it bore his
wife's initial, and it must have been dropped by him.
He himself says he had given it to Lord Faringdon.
But I have not succeeded in inducing him to say why.
On this point and on another—the excuse for his noc-
turnal escapade, which is the really convicting circum-
stance against him-he maintains a stubborn silence,
which I can only interpret as a result of his guilt. If
he really had an assignation that evening, then there


THE INVESTIGATION 163
must be a possibility of proving it. I call your special
attention to that point, as it is of great importance."
Sterner paused.
Dr. Braun was listening attentively.
Sterner's brow was furrowed, as though he was
seeking for a word. He continued, rather nervously:
“As I was saying, this is a point of importance. If
I did not feel myself that my position as Frau Saar-
brücken's confidential adviser made me not the right
person to carry on the case—and I may tell you as a
colleague that I feel more than friendship for that
woman; it would be wrong to conceal this from you-
if I did not feel this, I say, I should now be concen-
trating all my attention on this point. The man will
not speak. The dagger is a piece of evidence that
will have great effect upon the jury—I don't attach
so much importance to it. There are plenty of arti-
cles of that sort, and they are all alike. But of course
it is a point to be considered. So far all this concerns
the accused. As to the murdered man, it is known for
certain that he went to Frankfort by train. It is not
known when he came back. That is to say, from the
evidence heard it has not been possible to decide how
he returned to Homburg."
Sterner paused again and turned over the docu-
ments. “Let me here tell you that perhaps on this
point I have not exhausted the material, and let me
also mention, Dr. Braun, that this is where you will
perhaps have most new work, here and about Saar-
brücken's alibi. If it can be shown that Lord Faring-


164 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
don came back after Saarbrücken had gone to bed,
that is, after 1.30, then the case against Saarbrücken
falls to the ground. On the other hand, if it can be
shown that he returned to Homburg, or that he was
seen in the neighbourhood of the Park or of the scene
of the murder at such a time as agrees with that which
Saarbrücken spent out of doors, then that is a new
piece of circumstantial evidence, which does not count
for so very much and which I as a magistrate would
not consider of very great importance. On the other
hand, I would recommend you most strongly to fol-
low up anything that may show either that Lord Far-
ingdon came back after 1.30, or that he was seen
alive at a later hour than this. That would prove
Saarbrücken's innocence. The last point I have tried
to clear up in vain."
Dr. Braun cleared his throat.
“You think then, Dr. Sterner, that no importance
is to be attached to finding out when Lord Faringdon
returned, so long as his return falls within the period
of Saarbrücken's absence from the hotel? Excuse me,
I don't quite understand this. It appears to me that
everything touching upon this point is of equal impor-
tance."
Sterner looked up. “You misunderstand me, Dr.
Braun. I only mean that of course it would be very
nice to know everything that Lord Faringdon did
that night, but that it is only of real importance to
prove his movements at the time which concerns the
case. I insist on this, because a magistrate must al-


THE INVESTIGATION 165
ways keep before him the limits of his hypotheses.
Suppose, for instance, that I knew for certain that
Lord Faringdon was in the Curhaus Park at, say,
12.40, and suppose at the same time I knew for cer-
tain that Saarbrücken was also in the Park at that
time, then with the evidence at my disposal and taking
into consideration the other facts of the case, I should
be almost certain that Saarbrücken was the murderer.
But on the other hand I should be well aware that
I had no proof, since there would have been nothing
to prevent another man from committing the murder
at precisely that time, a score of yards from the man
who would thus innocently be suspected of the crime.
My knowledge in this respect would be of no real
value to me, although it would strongly influence my
feeling. It would be quite otherwise if I knew posi-
tively that the murdered man had not returned till
two hours after the accused had gone to bed. And
everything that may serve to clear up this point you
must try to find out, it is your absolute duty—if you
can. Do you understand me now?”.
Dr. Braun understood; still, he thought the good
Sterner was somewhat didactic, and this he put down
to his being a man of science and politely said noth-
ing. He saw well enough that there was not very
much more to be done, and in his inmost heart he
thought that Sterner had accomplished his task
splendidly, even though circumstances had come to
his aid—there was really not much more to be done.
For who in the world could discover whether Saar-


166 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
brücken had had an assignation or not at that hour;
and, as Sterner rightly said, it would be difficult to
show when Lord Faringdon came home, and if it
could be shown it would set Saarbrücken free—that
was a side of the case that the defence ought really
to take over.
The two men talked long, and Sterner separated
from a docile pupil without having altered his ideas
and without having tried to influence his successor.


CHAPTER FOURTEEN
tha
HE sun was sinking over Falkenstein, dyeing
the tree-tops and house-gables red. Down
the steep mountain roads came clattering
carts, with the brakes shrieking against the wheels.
and in the countless little gardens sat the Rhinelan-
ders over their red wine at small tables.
Sterner's motor-car came panting up the hillside,
and as it approached the people put their heads to-
gether and whispered: “That's the magistrate who
is getting up the case against Saarbrücken, the wine-
merchant of Frankfort.”
Lizzie was standing in the garden, looking out
over the road. He had promised to come, and he
would keep his promise. She had feverishly seized
the day's papers: no news—no confession. Then he
would come, and he would have acted according to
her wish. The terrible struggle between these two
men was over-Sterner was tired—she saw that and
spoke to him kindly.
Her brother was not so well, he became worse
every day. There could not be much hope now. But
Lizzie thought only of one thing, while her mother
could think of nothing but her son.
167


168 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
She and Sterner sat in the garden under a great
lime-tree, whose leaves rustled in the mild evening
breeze. Deep peace rested on the hill and over the
valley with its river like a shining ribbon. Sterner was
tired—very tired. She had asked her question with a
look, and he had answered with a movement of the
head. Now they were both silent.
Then she said:
“And now, Fritz, won't you apply for leave and
go away for a little while? Sir Longland Hearne has
invited me to visit him; he lives in the Isle of Wight.
I have been thinking about it, but it would not be
fair on mother. Why don't you accept the invitation ?
You want rest."
Sterner shook his head. “I can't go away. Nor
shall I take leave. I have two or three cases to see
to, and work for me is the best sort of rest."
“You have quite given up this case?" she asked.
“Whatever I do, I do thoroughly,” said Sterner.
“Tomorrow Braun comes to see me, I shall go
through the evidence with him and put the case into
his hands, and never touch it again."
“ And you are glad of it?" she asked.
"No," he said. “This case excited me, but I have
given you my promise. Besides, I am dissatisfied with
my evidence. You must know, that in the ordinary
sense it completely convicts him. He can scarcely es-
cape being condemned, but from my point of view
the most important thing is wanting, though it is only
a form—his confession."


170 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
which make me uncertain. You mustn't ask me what
they are. Why should I drag you into the dark pas-
sages of my confidence? You would not be able to
help me, and your mind would only be saddened by
it. Therefore I say nothing. But this I will tell you,
that at this moment I stand at a path, which led
straight on and now divides into three. Which of
these three paths I shall follow, I don't know, and
my instinct does not tell me, as it otherwise would."
“Why not? ” she asked.
"Because another voice speaks louder than that of
instinct. A voice that always speaks to me when my
thoughts seek rest, as when they are struggling with
great and difficult problems. And this voice calls
your name, Lizzie.
“For Sterner the magistrate it is no longer a ques-
tion of how he shall fulfil his task as magistrate, it
is a question of how he shall rescue a woman, convey
her free and happy from the most bitter struggle of
her life. A magistrate is a man. If I desert you, I
desert my dearest human duty. But I cannot accom-
plish my work as magistrate, and I only listen to the
inner voice that calls your name."
Lizzie's eyes gleamed; she took a step towards him
then stopped short, as though by force.
“Fritz,” she said, “ don't think about me any
more. I know that you will do what I ask you; I see
that you have kept your promise. But the magis-
trate's office is not only to prosecute the guilty. You
have so often told me that it is just as much his duty


THE INVESTIGATION
171
to protect the innocent; you told me that was the
greatest fault of our magistrates, that they only had
the one thing in view, to hear the word ' guilty' pro-
nounced over those who were brought before them,
to force from them the confession that sealed their
fate. But you—for you it was the sacred duty of the
magistrate to defend the innocent, as much as to con-
vict the guilty. I can read in your eyes that your
doubts are aroused. I do not know why, but to-day
you are no longer sure of your case. I begged you to
make way and you did so. Now I beg you: do your
duty as the magistrate you are. Throw the sharp
light of truth over all this confusion. And if Saar-
brücken is your enemy, then do what the greatest of
all Judges commands you: Forgive your enemy-
and do more than that. Take up his case and save
him, if he is suffering innocently."
Sterner stared at her. He opened his arms to em-
brace her, but she avoided him.
“No, no, no,” she said; “ you came to me calling
yourself my friend—you, whom I have called by
names far dearer than that of friend. I avoided you
-because I loved you-loved you on the day we met
again, as I loved you on the day we parted.—Now I
can read in your eyes, I can hear in your voice every-
thing from those old days. But now it is my right to
impose a condition upon you. And my condition is this:
“Save him!”
And before Sterner could say a word in answer she
was gone.


CHAPTER FIFTEEN
YTERNER informed Sir Longland Hearne of
his decision to withdraw from the case. That
old, experienced lawyer shook his head. He
had a very high opinion of Sterner and would have
liked to see the case in his hands. But if he would
not, why-
They were sitting together one evening in Sterner's
rooms. Sir Longland was leaving, and had come to
say good-bye.
Sterner explained his reasons. He lay back com-
fortably in a deep arm-chair, smoking a very strong
cigar. Hearne, too, was smoking, thoughtfully and
very slowly.
“I give up this case,” said Sterner, “because it is
not clean. To me my work is a science. I consider it
exceedingly doubtful whether society has the right
to interfere with its punishments. In the old days
they thought this right to punish was the most natural
thing in the world. But then they used to think war
was a noble business—in fact, the best of sports. Now
all reasonable people are agreed that war is barbar-
ous, not to say criminal, something that can only be
resorted to as an ultima ratio, and then fenced about
172


THE INVESTIGATION
173
with all sorts of excuses. Who knows when we shall
have got so far as to look upon punishment in the
same light? If a single unit of society has no right
to cause pain to a human being, may it not be rather
hard to establish the right of a mass of such units
society as a wholeto do so ?”
Sir Longland murmured: “But messieurs les assas-
sins, are they to be allowed to threaten society with
impunity?"
Sterner smiled. “What is crime? In old days it
was a crime to eat swine's flesh or to deny the Real
Presence in the sacrament, or even the Pope's power
of granting indulgences. In England, in Henry
VIII's time, people were hanged, drawn and quar-
tered for trilling offences. We reduce the number of
crimes. Perhaps we shall get to the bottom at last.
That punishment is a very unpractical way of putting
a stop to crime is evident from the fact that no crimi-
nal reckons upon being found out and punished. For
crimes against property the best cure is social reform;
for crimes against morals, the madhouse, and for
murder, civilization and education.”.
Hearne put his head on one side.“ Civilization
think of Saarbrücken!”
“ An uncivilized beast is what I call him," an-
swered Sterner shortly.
“All the same," continued the other, “it some-
times happens that highly cultivated men commit
murder.”
“Seldom," said Sterner; “and when it happens, I


174 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
am not quite sure that they do not act with a certain
amount of right. All good things can rightfully be
seized—the good things of life, too. Well, no more
of that; we were talking of something else. My busi-
ness is a science. I do not believe punishment is mor-
ally justifiable, but I admit that the tracking of crime
is a useful means of securing peace for society, simply
because the so-called crimes are thereby exposed and
thus it becomes possible to remove their causes."
“H’m,” muttered Sir Longland. “And about this
case ?”
“This case,” said Sterner, “is not quite a clean
one. I have a personal interest in it, as you know, and
that disqualifies me from treating the matter in my
own way. Now I have retired from it, I may tell you,
I think Saarbrücken will get off; and for that reason
we ought to postpone a decision about the inheritance
until we see how things turn out.”
"Is that wise? ” asked Hearne.
“It is very stupid,” replied Sterner; " but when
you have women mixed up in a case, there is always
a chance that stupidity will be rewarded.”
Hearne tried to get something more out of Sterner
on this subject of women, but the magistrate was not
to be drawn out, and as Sir Longland was very dis-
creet, he let the matter drop. It was evident that
Sterner wanted to discuss ethical considerations in-
stead of imparting to him his real motives. That was
Sterner's affair.
The next day he went back to London, promising


THE INVESTIGATION 175
to look after Frau Saarbrücken's affairs to the best of
his ability. He took with him in an urn the ashes of
Lord Faringdon, and on his arrival had them buried
with much ceremony in the chapel of Rigsby Abbey.
But Dr. Sterner, his day's work ended, sat alone
in his study, plunged in deep thought.
And there was continually present to his mind the
one condition: Save him!
He saw that it was the past, rising again from its
grave and claiming its rights.





SECOND PART
THE TRIAL





180 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
fort, had engaged a good deal of capital in the wine-
merchants' business of Fürste & Wienecker, of which
the accused was the proprietor. It had not been de-
clared bankrupt; on the contrary, it continued to
carry on business, though somewhat hindered by its
difficult position; and people who knew what deli-
cate noses Moritz Rosenthal & Co. had, and who
were acquainted with their connection with the ad-
vocate, nephew of the head of the firm, were after
all a little disposed to entertain the view that the
last word had not been said yet, and Moritz
Rosenthal & Co. generally knew what they were
about.
The wife of the accused had spent the summer at
Falkenstein; her brother was better, and in August
she had gone with him and her mother to the Isle of
Wight, where they had been the guests of the mur-
dered lord's lawyer, Sir Longland Hearne. Now she
had returned to Frankfort, where she had taken a
little apartment near the Eschenheimer Thor; she was
but seldom seen and never spoke to anyone. There
had been a good deal of gossip about her relations
with the murdered man, but it had to be admitted that
this was only rumour; and it was especially these ru-
mours and their final clearing up that was to provide
the bulk of the sensational and exciting material in
the approaching trial.
The third of the principal actors in this drama,
Dr. Sterner, had also been absent on leave during
August. It was known that he too had been in Eng-


THE TRIAL
181
land, and this was thought quite natural, since it was
commonly known that after having begun by being
very harsh in his treatment of the prisoner's wife, he
had been much captivated by her, and no doubt the
reason for his retiring from the case and leaving it
to his younger colleague, Dr. Braun, was that he
might be of assistance to her. Dr. Sterner, however,
had only spent a short time in England; he had dis-
charged his official duties at Homburg as usual, until
suddenly, a week before the opening of the trial, he
had gone south and had not returned. People were
thus not absolutely certain that he would be able to
be present at the trial, though of course everyone ex-
pected that he whose preliminary investigation had
produced the bulk of the evidence, could scarcely be
absent on the day when the public proceedings should
commence. It was true that Sterner was now quite
outside the case, and everything he had done was
added to the documents. He could now only be re-
garded as a spectator, but surely a very interested and
interesting spectator.
As to Saarbrücken himself it was known that he
stubbornly continued to assert his innocence. It was
said that he was defiant and silent; he behaved well
in the prison, as men of his kind always do; but his
conduct under the numerous examinations that had
been held was so far from suggesting his innocence,
that it even very strongly confirmed the suspicions
against him.
That was what people said; but how much do peo-


182 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
ple know about prisoners that sit in safe-keeping be-
hind iron gratings ?
How much was it, in fact, that people knew at all
about this case ?—and just for that reason they
looked forward to the trial, which was to bring
everything into the light of day, the outcome as it
was of shrewd human labour, to attain what Society
regards as its final goal—Justice.
Meanwhile, during all this time, the defence had
been at work. Isidor Rosenthal was not a man who
talked of what he was doing; when people in Frank-
fort asked him his opinion, he used to smile-he was
fond of smiling—and then said something to the
effect that the man whose defence he had undertaken
was either innocent, or in any case would be found
not guilty, in spite of the position of the facts. Then
they laughed at these advocates and understood that
Rosenthal did not want to make any communication
to the world at large until the day should come when
he would appear in public.
However, the more initiated were able to find some
connecting links for guess-work in the examinations
that were being instituted here and there on behalf
of the defence, but after all this was very little. It
was known that the police prefect at Homburg
had furnished the able police commissary, Martin
Schaltz, to the defence, the same man who had car-
ried out the arrest of Saarbrücken, and that Schaltz
had made frequent journeys to Hamburg and even
to England on behalf of the defence.


THE TRIAL
183
Schaltz had just returned from his last visit to
Hamburg and was an almost daily visitor at Isidor
Rosenthal's office, where the two men were working
upon some very important information that Schaltz
had collected on his journeys. Rosenthal was satis-
fied with Schaltz, and Schaltz was proud of this. It
was a very different thing to work with a pleasant-
mannered advocate from being bullied by a Prussian
police-magistrate. And in this respect Dr. Braun was
not a bit better than Sterner. Perhaps scarcely so
rude, thought Schaltz.
As for Sterner, Schaltz simply could not stand him,
and so it happened that he came across an elderly
lady who in all respects shared his feelings for the
magistrate.
This lady was none other than Madame Schultz,
of 117 Alter Steinweg, Hamburg, Sterner's former
housekeeper. She was a good friend to Schaltz, and
it was for the most part the fruit of their collabora-
tion that was now being carefully gone through in the
lawyer's office on the Zeil. Madame Schultz knew
the magistrate well, she also knew Frau Saarbrücken
extremely well, she knew what no one in Frankfort
guessed, and what Isidor Rosenthal gladly paid lib-
erally to learn. Madame Schultz was in the wrong
in her relations with Sterner, she had abused his con-
fidence, and when he discovered her dishonesty, she
had sworn to be revenged. Here seemed to be an op-
portunity; by her help his work and his plans should
be brought to naught. Madame Schultz did not spare


184 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
her knowledge, she had made good use of her posi-
tion, picked up things here and there, -indeed, she
had not denied herself the possession of certain pa-
pers which were not intended for the world at large,
and which she now, in return for a suitable gratuity,
placed at the disposal of Mr. Schaltz.
That part of the information which had to be col-
lected in England, was provided by Mr. Wells; the
Roxley family had agreed to contribute to the defence
on the condition that the advocate should remember
them when the question that interested them should
reach its final settlement.
The legacy itself still remained unpaid. On behalf
of Frau Saarbrücken Sterner had made enquiries
through Rosenthal, as to whether the accused, Saar-
brücken, were now willing to give his consent to a
divorce.
At the urgent instance of Isidor Rosenthal, the
accused had answered this question by a decided No.
In this connection there had been some personal ne-
gotiations between Rosenthal and Sterner, in the
course of which the advocate had made great use of
the power that was peculiarly his, of sounding the
plans and the thoughts of his fellow-men.
Sterner was a clever man, but his cleverness con-
sisted chiefly in this, that he laid his plans and carried
them out consistently, avoiding any undue haste and
always preserving a certain coolness in his external
behaviour. His strength lay in making a clever use
of facts, in combining them and balancing them intel-


THE TRIAL
185
na
ligently one against another. In this he was cer-
tainly Rosenthal's superior; while on the other hand
the advocate possessed that special gift, which is of so
great advantage to a commercial race, to a family of
merchants, in the course of its development, the gift,
namely, of taking advantage of every little weakness,
every false step, however slight on the part of his
opponent, in order to advance the cause he had made
his own.
In short, Sterner was strong by his own cleverness,
while Rosenthal was so through his marvellous power
of making use of other people's foolishness.
And in the course of these very negotiations it
looked as if Sterner had made a false step. Sterner
was not unacquainted with the fact that the defence
had had some hesitation about throwing a slur upon
Lizzie Saarbrücken. She had been summoned to one
or two examinations, but Dr. Braun had entirely ac-
cepted the point of view originated by Sterner with
regard to her. It was evident that she would have
to appear as a witness at the trial; that she could not
give evidence against her husband was clearly ex-
pressed in the criminal code, and that she could not be
accused of cognizance or of anything like complicity
in the crime was obvious from the fact that the pub-
lic prosecutor had taken no steps against her. Sterner
was now only a spectator, besides being Lizzie's
representative in the question of inheritance.
He had been discussing with Rosenthal an arrange-
ment whereby Lizzie's marriage could be nullified,


186 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
and here he had met with opposition; in the course of
these negotiations he had defined precisely those in-
stituted by Lord Faringdon, before the fatal event.
At first Rosenthal had believed that Sterner was here
repeating the knowledge and views of his principal;
but gradually, as he found out through Schaltz more
about Sterner and Lizzie, he saw that Sterner was
not merely acting as Lizzie's mouthpiece.
He renewed the negotiations, and after a few con-
versations with Sterner, the end of which was that
Saarbrücken still refused to hear of a divorce, Rosen-
thal had acquired the information that even before
the death of Lord Faringdon, the magistrate had
taken part in the divorce negotiations and that his
acquaintance with the murdered lord was a fairly ex-
tensive one.
It did not escape Sterner that on this point the ad-
vocate was very inquisitive, but since it was still Liz-
zie's resolve not to desert Saarbrücken in his need, as
she put it, against his wish, and since Sterner was de-
termined to support her as far as possible, he con-
tinued these negotiations, though they were intensely
disagreeable to him.
On one point he had not altered his resolve; he
would not put forth a hand to "save" Saarbrücken;
he was a spectator of the trial, he said, and nothing
else.
The day before the proceedings opened, he re-
turned home from the south.


CHAPTER TWO
N September 7th, in the Criminal Court of
Frankfort-on-the-Main, began the trial of
Helmuth Saarbrücken of that city, accused
of the murder of the English peer, Cecil Laking, sev-
enth Baron Faringdon, committed at Homburg vor
der Höhe on the preceding 7th of July.
The court was crowded to suffocation, and the heat
was considerable; it was still summer, and the sun
poured its rays in through the lofty pointed windows,
filled with stained glass. There were present all the
prominent people of Frankfort, officials, military men
and merchants, and in particular a flock of Isidor
Rosenthal's friends and connections, serious and char-
acteristic types of the leading men of the banking
metropolis; but at the same time a number of ladies
in gay-coloured toilettes were there, and many of the
papers had sent their representatives to procure for
their readers the matter they delighted in,-sensa-
tion, and the incongruity that arises when one of the
so-called upper ten thousand by a criminal action
sinks into the class that is usually recruited from those
who are born on the darker side of Society.
Saarbrücken sat in the dock. He was pale, his head
187


188 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
was bent, and he did not seem to bestow the slightest
attention on the crowd. But he was evidently com-
posed and bore his fate with great calmness. Frau
Saarbrücken was among the witnesses; she arrived
late, and as she entered the court by the side of Dr.
Sterner, clad in black with a thick veil over her face,
a murmur went through the audience. The accused
raised his head for a moment, then sank back into
the dull indifference which seemed to be his weapon
against what might befall him.
There was deep silence in court when the Presi-
dent rose to open the proceedings. The court was
duly constituted, the jury sworn and placed in their
box. The curtain had gone up and the drama was
beginning.
There were five acts, in accordance with the an-
cient rules of the drama, a division which was espe-
cially appropriate in the case of one like the present,
which according to the expectation of everyone must
end as a tragedy—with the death of the protagonist.
The first act contained the speech of the prosecution,
which would be followed by evidence against the
prisoner and the prosecuting counsel's concluding ad-
dress; then witnesses for the defence, and, as the
fourth act, the act of conflict and rising interest, the
speech for the defence. The fifth and last act would
consist of the words to be pronounced by the solemn
men now assembled on the bench upon Helmuth Saar-
brücken, the Homburg murderer. te
The spectators knew, of course, the argument of


THE TRIAL
189
the play, they knew it from newspaper articles, from
common talk, and yet the court was filled with that
peculiar atmosphere, charged with excitement, which
is ever present in a large assembly, whose thoughts
and senses are directed to one object-one action that
concerns the individual but yet creates a reaction upon
the minds and wills of all.
Dr. Hagemeister, the public prosecutor, rose to
open the case; he was a tall, thin man with a dry
voice; a lawyer such as you may find all over the
world, dry, monotonous and sharp, going straight to
the point without looking to one side or the other,
sparing neither himself nor his hearers a single point
that seems to his judicial brain to concern the case.
Dr. Hagemeister stood in his black gown like a
figure of inevitable retribution—an image of death.
After the usual formal introduction the prosecution
established the fact of Saarbrücken's being charged
with the murder of Lord Faringdon, and described
the private circumstance of the accused.
He continued:
“ As you will see, gentlemen of the jury, in this
case we have no confession of his guilt on the part
of the accused on the contrary, he has all along
stubbornly denied his guilt. Nor have we any definite
proof, and in a case like this, of secret assassination,
direct proof will seldom be forthcoming. On the
other hand, thanks to the admirable investigation
carried on by the preliminary examiner, we have a
series of circumstantial evidence, which in my opinion


190 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
incontestably points to the accused as the perpetrator
of the crime, and which, I do not hesitate to declare,
has brought me to a conviction of his guilt. Mean-
while, I do not deny that circumstantial evidence is a
two-edged sword; it allows scope for conclusions, and
the separate circumstances can be considered impor-
tant only when they can be firmly linked into a chain
which taken as a whole points to guilt. This is the
case here, and I shall now try to sketch the develop-
ment of events, showing how single facts occur in the
chain of circumstances.
“What do we know about Helmuth Saarbrücken
beyond the facts of his birth and outward circum-
stances ?
"He has never before been either charged or con-
victed of any action that public opinion calls dis-
graceful; I shall not dwell upon the fact of his having
appeared in his young days at the police-court in
Hamburg for various misdemeanors committed in a
state of intoxication. It is true that his drunkenness
showed itself also in the shape of brutality towards
the guardians of the public peace, but as I said before,
I shall not dwell upon that—he was then a young
man. It was also to be expected that the advance
of years, the fact that he became chief of a great
business with all its responsibility, and the circum-
stance that he brought into his home a beautiful
and cultured woman as his bride, might have
changed his nature, forced him into the circle of
useful citizens.


THE TRIAL
191
“I regret that it is my duty at once to assert that
it did not turn out so. And although I run the risk
of wearying you, gentlemen of the jury, I am com-
pelled to show, on the basis of conscientiously col-
lected information and data, how it was due to
Helmuth Saarbrücken, and to him alone, that the
flourishing house of Fürste & Wienecker has been
brought to the brink of a calamity, I shall now pro-
ceed to do this.”
And Dr. Hagemeister did it, did it so thoroughly
with so many figures that the greater part of the as-
sembled multitude sank into dull listlessness, crushed
beneath the weight of the many columns of figures.
And already there began to arise a vague dissatisfac-
tion with the man who was the direct cause that peo-
ple, after having with great difficulty gained admis-
sion to the court for the purpose of hearing an
exciting murder trial, were compelled to sigh by the
hour under the burden of these terrible figures.
When the prosecuting counsel had concluded this
part of his attack, it became clear to all good Frank-
forters that Helmuth Saarbrücken was a criminally
bad wine-merchant.
But considered as a man, his shares were also
destined to fall.
Dr. Hagemeister continued:
“The time that Saarbrücken should have devoted
to his lawful occupation he spent in all kinds of dis-
sipation and frivolous amusements. If he was a bad
man of business, he was a worse husband. What I


192 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
mean by this will become evident from the statements
of numerous witnesses; I need not dwell upon details
at this point.
“What is of chief importance is his position with
regard to this special case, his relations to the mur-
dered lord and his relations to his wife. Lord Faring-
don was his friend; he was the representative of a
great and honoured family in a great country; he met
his death here, at a place to which his countrymen
resort to find amusement; as a German I cannot do
otherwise than remember with regret this stranger,
who, if he had his faults, and which of us has not ?-
had to atone for them terribly. Peace be with him.
Saarbrücken was his friend, and shamefully did the
accused abuse this friendship. I shall not weary you
with many more figures, but this list of the amounts
borrowed by Saarbrücken from his friend speaks
plainer than words.”
Again the weary audience had to listen while the
prosecutor read out a string of figures, but the result
was the same, public feeling was turned against the
man who had caused such an arsenal of figures to be
inflicted upon a lot of people who had come expecting
piquant details.
Dr. Hagemeister continued:
“Lord Faringdon was Saarbrücken's friend, and
still more was he the friend of the prisoner's wife.
No shadow of blame rests upon this woman; nothing
in the course of the investigation has occurred that
justifies anyone in conceiving the slightest suspicion


THE TRIAL
193
of her. She did her duty as a wife, she did her duty
as a human being, when she asked her husband to
release her from a connection that through his fault
was not what a marriage should be. Here she en-
countered his opposition. Not because he loved her;
a man who loves his wife is faithful to her, and he
was not. Why? we ask then; and here we come to
accused.
“ It has been established that Lord Faringdon re-
fused to lend Saarbrücken any more money; it has
been established that Lord Faringdon earnestly urged
Saarbrücken to set his wife free; nothing has trans-
pired that justifies us in supposing that Lord Faring-
don himself entertained love for Frau Saarbrücken,
still less that she returned such a feeling—but even if
it were so, there are things that remain concealed in
the human heart, and in any case this couple was
going the way that leads to the dissolution of a con-
nection that has not been what it should be.
“Saarbrücken knew that his wife was to inherit
Lord Faringdon's fortunelet us call this a whim
on the part of the wealthy Englishman, and to our
more sober minds whims and wealthy Englishmen are
often synonymous, and, as I said, there is not the
slightest stain upon her. Saarbrücken lost the friend-
ship of Lord Faringdon, his source of supply was
cut off, ruin rose before him, he seized the dagger and
became a criminal. His motive was to use the com-
munity of goods existing between himself and his


194 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
wife to secure Lord Faringdon's fortune. Nothing
has been able to shake this fundamental hypothesis-
for me it stands firm and secure.
“These are then the first three items of circum-
stantial evidence: ist, Saarbrücken's insolvency; 2d,
his knowledge that there was a remedy, as his wife
was Lord Faringdon's heiress; 3d, his obstinate op-
position to the divorce. But I admit that this is not
enough to convict him.
“Let us therefore carefully enquire how he was
occupied on the evening Lord Faringdon was mur-
dered. At six o'clock that evening Lord Faringdon
dined with Saarbrücken; it is shown that while the
two sat at the dinner-table at the hotel, a boy named
Caspar Schultz who was employed to pick up balls at
the tennis-ground, came to their table and showed a
locket he had found in the Park, which he believed to
belong to Saarbrücken, the more so as the latter had
dropped it, discovered his loss, and charged Caspar
to look for it. Saarbrücken took this object from the
boy and gave him a reward: it was a little gold
locket, containing a lock of hair, and with the initial
L engraved on the outside-meaning Lizzie, the
name by which Frau Saarbrücken was known in the
circle of her intimates. This locket, which had once
been lost, was found again by the body on the scene
of the murder.
“I say that it was dropped by the murderer during
the brief struggle that preceded the murder. The ex-
amining magistrate has represented this to the ac-


THE TRIAL
195
cused, and the latter has stubbornly affirmed that he
had given the locket to Lord Faringdon.
“Do you believe that, gentlemen ?
“Why? you will ask.
“Saarbrücken says that on that very evening he
had changed his views with regard to his wife's
wishes, in other words, he was willing to agree to the
divorce. He has himself affirmed that he was against
it; nothing has appeared to explain this; and so who
will believe it?
“After this fourth piece of evidence, the locket,
we have the fifth against him, which also concerns a
lifeless thing, the circumstance, namely, that there has
been found in his effects a dagger which corresponds
exactly to the wound inflicted. Objections may be
raised against each of these pieces of evidence, taken
together they are fatal to the accused; but, it seems
to me, that the circumstances which follow, and which
refer to Saarbrücken's conduct after Lord Faringdon
had left him that evening and taken the train at seven
o'clock for Frankfort, will prove far more fatal to
the accused.
“Saarbrücken spent the evening with Herr Bech-
messer and his wife, who will give evidence. They
have both stated that the accused, who is an excellent
whist-player, was absent-minded that evening and
played so badly that they remarked upon it. They
even gave up the game, and Saarbrücken, who did
not care for music but was a keen card-player, was
present at a concert, during which he was seen in


196 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
conversation with a man, with whom he was not
otherwise known to have been acquainted, an Italian,
whose name does not occur elsewhere in the case.
That it was not the concert that attracted Saarbrücken
to the place appears to result from the evidence of
witnesses who declare that during the performance
of a piece which was listened to in the deepest silence
by the whole audience, Saarbrücken by his restless
and noisy behaviour brought upon himself audible
signs of disapproval.
“He left the concert at eleven and went home. At
half-past twelve he was let out by the night-porter
and hurried, as the man has deposed, nervously and
restlessly out into the night.
“As to the object of his nocturnal excursion he
has maintained a stubborn silence. At one o'clock he
was seen by the witness Nathalia Stolzi close to the
place we may describe as the scene of the murder."
On this point Dr. Hagemeister enlarged at weari-
some length.
“At half-past one he came home-heated and
restless as he had gone out, and when next day his
arrest was decided upon by the investigating magis-
trate, he behaved like a madman and after a struggle
had to be handcuffed and confined in a drunkard's
cell.
"Later he has been extraordinarily calm, obsti-
nately silent, and not a word has been got out of him
to explain or throw light on what happened in those
night hours.


198 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
attempts have not been successful. It would be unjust
to regret that Dr. Sterner did not complete the
preparation of the case; there can be no doubt that
he, who from personal grounds felt himself called to
support the wife of the accused in her helpless condi-
tion, gave up a task, which, if he had carried it out
to the end, must have made it impossible for him to
occupy the position he wished to occupy, and to which
he was peculiarly fitted by considerations of civil
law. I touch upon this point expressly, gentlemen
of the jury, in order that you may see that the
magistrate was by no means the enemy of the ac-
cused, but on the contrary that he has allowed room
for criticism of all his steps, before his work comes
before you."
Dr. Hagemeister's speech furnished no surprises;
thus the case stood, and now they would see what the
evidence produced.
The evidence began immediately after the speech
for the prosecution and lasted for three sittings of
the court. All were agreed that it was disappointing;
Dr. Sterner had arranged the case in a dry and sober
fashion, and Dr. Braun had followed in his footsteps.
But on the third day it seemed as though something
new would come out. It was the witnesses for the de-
fence who were being examined. But their evidence
seemed to have nothing to do with the murder, it was
concerned with all kinds of scattered facts about the
lives of Saarbrücken, Lord Faringdon and Lizzie
Saarbrücken, and what surprised people most of all


THE TRIAL
199
was that these witnesses also spoke of many things
connected with Dr. Sterner's private life.
There was yet wanting the speech that was to bind
all these statements into a comprehensible whole.
But something was to be expected when Isidor
Rosenthal rose to speak, and the papers were agreed
that in this case the chief interest would lie in the
defence.


THE TRIAL
201
strain, but still his misfortunes had not been able to
break down the calm which was the most conspicuous
trait of his character. If Rosenthal succeeded in get-
ting him acquitted and he became a free man again,
it was not quite certain whether Rosenthal would be
able to lead him wherever he liked; Saarbrücken was
like a colossus, you could neither cut nor pierce him.
There was community of goods between him and his
wife, and if the English authorities represented by
Sir Longland Hearne would pay over the legacy,
everything would be in order. But Sir Longland
Hearne was evidently a careful man, he was on the
side of Sterner, and besides the will itself contained
phrases which might be variously interpreted, or in
any case might furnish material for protracted litiga-
tion, to determine whether it was to be assumed that
the legacy, as “reserved ” estate should fall to Mrs.
Lizzie Saarbrücken as her private property. The
legacy amounted to about two and a half million
marks, and that meant that the house of Fürste &
Wienecker would be saved, if it fell to the couple
as their joint property; if on the other hand it
was treated as the private property of the wife, the
firm of Moritz Rosenthal & Co. were left with
a debt of a million which would not be easy to
collect.
It was therefore important for Rosenthal to make
use of the time, while Saarbrücken was sitting in
prison as a helpless captive, to bind him to take just
those steps his advocate desired when he was once


202 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
more free. Of course he must first be saved, but it
was a natural consequence that, if this did not suc-
ceed, then the financial side of the case was also hope-
lessly lost—and Rosenthal never gave up hope.
On the same day as the evidence in the trial had
been completed he went to the prison to speak to his
client for the last time before the great fight.
Saarbrücken was nervous, and Rosenthal was
therefore gentle with him, at least, so long as he was
talking about the murder case. He consoled the pris-
oner as well as he could and declared that he was not
afraid of Dr. Hagemeister and his circumstantial evi-
dence.
“But,” said he, “we must now look a little at the
other side of the question, the financial side. You
have conducted your affairs like a lunatic; that is a
fault that cannot be cured, without the addition of
an enormous capital; we have done what we could,
but we cannot save the firm, unless more money comes
into it, and what is worse, we shall lose our money.
You have behaved like a criminal on this point, and
for that alone you have deserved the misfortunes
that hitherto have befallen you. Therefore, as soon
as you have an opportunity, you must arrange your
affairs with your wife. You are not yet divorced, but
I understand from you that you once gave your con-
sent. That is an important point in the murder trial.
Is it so ?”
“Yes,” answered Saarbrücken shortly.
“In writing?” asked the advocate.
on


THE TRIAL
203
“No, by word of mouth—to Lord Faringdon, the
evening it happened.”
“Right,” said the advocate.“ So it was. And that
· was the cause of Lord Faringdon's journey to Frank-
fort—and his subsequent excursion to ...." The
advocate broke off; not even in the cell, in the pres-
ence of the prisoner, would he produce his trump card
and anticipate the great surprise. “Then it amounts
to this, that you have not given your consent to the
divorce, and we can still negotiate with Sterner, for
it is with him we shall have to deal.”
“Never !” exclaimed Saarbrücken hotly. “I will
only meet that man at 24 paces, with pistols in our
hands."
“Gently, gently," said the advocate." It will be a
long time before you get the chance, and besides, I
think you must have had experience enough of the
unpleasantness that a thirst for blood may occasion,
especially when you really want to kill people, and a
magistrate above all people, who has had your case
before him in the course of his official work. No, let
me do what has to be done with Sterner; there are
many other excellent ways of hitting a man, with-
out having recourse to bloodshed. As I say, leave
him to me. You will have to follow my instruc-
tions implicitly. We are willing to fulfil the wishes
of the others, if necessary—of course, only if it
becomes necessary. And therefore you must sign
a document defining your claims in case of a di-
vorce." .


206 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
yourself must bear the responsibility. You are not
going to fool me; what lies are to be told in this case
are my business, but to me you have got to tell the
truth. Come on with the name."
Saarbrücken hesitated, and then said slowly:
“ Giulia Delphini."
“ Giulia Delphini!” The advocate stepped back
in surprise." The unapproachable, the beautiful wife
of the Italian banker, who lived in the cottage near
the scene of the murder. Well, I must say. She-
turris eburnea, as d'Annunzio says. Saarbrücken, you
have mismanaged your chances in life. So that was
why you were seen close to the scene of the murder.
But how could this woman Stolzi find her master and
mistress peacefully engaged in packing, and how on
earth could you let such a conquest escape you so
quickly?”
Saarbrücken blushed.
“ It was an innocent meeting—not the first. I left
the house by a back door before the husband came.
Madame Giulia had sent the maid out to be alone
with me.”
“Well”—said the advocate—“I can tell you, if
we could use this, I believe it would do."
"Impossible!” said Saarbrücken hastily. “I have
your word. Delphini is as jealous as Othello. You
have given me your word of honour, Mr. Rosenthal;
it will be criminal if you don't keep it."
"Don't alarm yourself, Saarbrücken, I always
keep my promises, and even as it is, this may go down


THE TRIAL
207
very well. It is reassuring to me to know that you
had a particularly strong reason for being in a place
where, in the circumstances, it would have been just
as well if you had not been. That's all right. I'm
satisfied with you to-day, Saarbrücken, and you will
be more than satisfied with me to-morrow."
Rosenthal shook his hand, lightly rather languidly,
as was his way, and left him.
But Saarbrücken sank down on his prison chair
and buried his face in his hands.


CHAPTER FOUR
R. STERNER sat in his study, busy with an
unimportant larceny case, one of those which
unprofitably take up three-quarters of a
magistrate's time. It was a piece of work that had to
be done: a poor wretch who had never had a chance,
and who was to be forced along the road of punish-
ment and its consequences, new misery and new
crime. It was late in the afternoon of the same day
that Rosenthal had paid his visit to Saarbrücken in
prison.
There was a timid knock at the door.
“ Come in,” said Sterner without turning round-
his voice sounded rather harsh, he hated being dis-
turbed at his work.
The door was opened softly and closed almost
noiselessly; he turned slowly—then sprang up and
stood staring at his visitor.
“Lizzie!"
She bent her head.
“You here—you come to me?—you really come
to me!”
“Yes,” she said in a faint voice; “I suppose it is
not right—but I had to. I have had no rest the last
208


THE TRIAL
209
few days, the last few nights; I must speak to you, I
must speak out with you ..."
Sterner pushed a deep, comfortable armchair
towards her, and she sat down.-She was in black,
and looked pale and nervous, but there was a certain
firm expression on her lips which he did not recognise
from old days, but which he had noticed lately when
he visited her and talked in a purely businesslike way
about the things he had to settle with her. For their
conversations now never rose above the level of busi-
ness—he had offered her his services as an expe-
rienced and skilled man of business, he knew that peo-
ple's tongues were busy about her and him; if only
they had known what it was they talked about.
And yet in both of them a fire was smouldering
under the ashes, which a chance word might fan into
a flame. Sterner had told the truth that day, when
he saw her at Falkenstein after the examination.
When he met her again after a separation of years,
he understood that it was she—she alone—and she
—she avoided him, but her eyes said what her lips
would not utter.
Now she was here in his room, and she had come
of her own accord, to speak to him in private.
Sterner said nothing—it was for her to speak.
She stammered a little; it was as though she were
afraid of saying too much, but gradually, as she
spoke, her words became more firm and her cheeks
were tinged with red.
"I could find no rest, I had to speak to you; I


210 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
know that you are clever, that you know what is right
to do, and just now, now I must ... I think it is
my duty as well as yours to act. I shuddered in court
when I heard all that they had got together against
him! he is innocent, he has his faults, his great, ugly
faults, but he did not murder Cecil. He is not a mur-
derer, and they must not condemn him to death as
a murderer. I don't understand how all that which
they call circumstantial evidence can convict him, and
yet I could see how they all believed in his guilt, all
these strange unsympathetic, inquisitive, indifferent
people, who seemed to be just waiting for his death.
I tell you, it horrified me. That is why I come to you
to beg you to save him. You can do it, you alone, and
you must not deny me this. What do I care about all
that you and Hearne are doing for me? I don't want
all their money; if it can save his life then take it all,
take every penny. I have only room for one thought,
one wish—you must save this man, he is innocent."
Sterner said nothing-involuntarily he shook his
head.
“Yes, yes,” she exclaimed eagerly—“he is inno-
cent. Nobody can know anything about what hap-
pened-you as little as anyone else; but I feel it, I
know it, do you hear?-he is innocent. I spoke to
you of conditions—there is no condition—you know
yourself what I feel for you; we cannot talk of con-
ditions, but only of this that I beg and entreat you:
Save him.-For everyone says it is you that will con-
vict him. I come to you, you cannot be mistaken


CHAPTER FIVE
\HE court was crowded to suffocation; it was
known that to-day Isidor Rosenthal would
speak, and he was known to be the most elo-
quent advocate of Frankfort. His speech was well
prepared; the words of individual witnesses, the
scenes during the hearing of evidence, and many hith-
erto incomprehensible allusions, had already deter-
mined what lines the address was to take. Everyone
understood that there was no question of a rebutting
of the evidence, there would be no attempt at finding
excuses or explanations, but a regular attack upon the
persons engaged in the prosecution, and above all
upon the examining magistrate who had taken the
first steps in the case. And nothing could have been
more to the taste of the public. All these men and
women, with their fists clenched against the mur-
derer, had sought shelter beneath the protecting
wings of justice, calling for revenge—and yet, no
sooner was a powerful voice raised against this pro-
tection of theirs, against the institution of justice
and the men who served it, than the whole mob
was ready to turn against these latter and to raise
the hands that they had clenched in anger against
212


216 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
who was slowly but surely making for himself a lead-
ing position among his fellows.
“We now come to the year 1888. Lord Faringdon
died that year; an accident during a yacht race at
Cowes ended his life. His son was then seventeen
and still a schoolboy. Among the documents of the
case, which will be laid before you, gentlemen of the
jury, is the letter which the young lord wrote on this
occasion to his childhood's playmate. The same acci-
dent which deprived Lord Faringdon of his life made
Elisabeth's mother a widow. And the changes that
came about at Rigsby Abbey decided her to return to
her native country, where she settled at Altona with
her savings and opened a boarding-house for young
gentlemen who through their studies or their work
were obliged to live away from home. Among the
first boarders that took up their quarters in the pleas-
ant little house by the Elbe was Professor Sterner's
son, the young Dr. Fritz Sterner, and once more the
strange chances of life brought together the two who
had passed their childhood under the same roof."
There was breathless silence in the court; all eyes
were turned on Sterner, who was carelessly leaning
back, apparently without a notion that the matter
concerned him. Frau Saarbrücken bent her thickly
veiled head and fixed her eyes on the floor.
The advocate continued, and his voice was as soft
as that of the sultana Scheherazade as she told story
after story to her lord and master in the mild Eastern
nights:


THE TRIAL
217
“I am speaking here for a man's welfare; it is my
task to lift the fearful burden of accusation from the
shoulders of the innocent; only one unhappy person
exists for me: he who stands here before you, sorely
tried, oppressed by suspicion, wearied and tormented
by long imprisonment. It is my task to raise this bur-
den from his shoulders; I cannot allow myself to be
restrained by consideration for others. I am well
aware that what I am about to say will leave a painful
wound, will tear away the curtain that conceals the
most sacred privacy of other's feelings, but so it must
be. Humanity demands that the life and secrets of
individuals shall be of smaller consideration than the
public security, which is the corner-stone of society. I
shall keep strictly to the path I have laid out for my-
self, but along this path I shall go, without looking
to the right hand or to the left.
“The two were young, their hearts beat warmly,
and their common memories of childhood built a
charmed grotto over them both. How could it be
otherwise? It is the old story—the story of life as it
flows like a river between green banks.
“ The man who raised the charge against Helmuth
Saarbrücken; the man who got together the formida-
ble array of facts upon which my learned friend has
based his awful accusation; the man who, standing at
the bar of justice, called you together in the name of
the State to pronounce sentence upon this accused per-
son, was the same who, in the shady gardens by the
bank of the Elbe, took in his arms the young woman


THE TRIAL
219
With this dagger you can cut the sentimental novels
you are so fond of, and so you will cure it of its thirst
for blood; in any case those novels of yours are blood-
less enough. I have bought myself the mate to it,
which resembles your dagger as one drop of water
another. I use mine to cut books of jurisprudence
and to stab my antagonist Lombroso. Thus you and
I will wield the dagger of Vendetta and conquer the
world of books. The blood we seek is printing-ink.
“'I sharpen my sword in another way, you know,
but if it comes to a pinch, the dagger is not a weapon
to be despised. It gives a firm, short stroke, and Italy
is the land of ambushes; we Germans prefer cudgels.
But that you don't understand; I am tired and an-
noyed because the Government has called me back;
and I have only half finished. This and the dagger
are all you will get to-day.
"Your own
Fritz.'
But that you the Government This and
“This dagger, then, gentlemen of the jury, is the
weapon with which the murder was committed—this
dagger which Dr. Fritz Sterner six years ago sent his
fiancée from Corsica; this dagger, the mate to which
lies bright and shining on Dr. Fritz Sterner's table.
“The young criminologist returned from the south
that winter, was transferred to Berlin, and in the
spring of 1894 he broke off his engagement to Elisa-
beth Gross. I have said that my course goes straight
ahead; I do not wish to wound anyone's feelings; I
only wish to bring out the truth, the full truth, on
behalf of him whose cause it is mine to defend. I
have a letter in my hand, which will be laid before
you, gentlemen; it gives the reason for the breaking


THE TRIAL
223
tacked by consumption, and was sent to Dr. Dett-
weiler's sanatorium at Falkenstein, where Fritz
Sterner's sister lives, as the wife of our celebrated
townsman, Dr. Immermann. Fritz Sterner visited his
sister, and after an interval of five years found the re-
jected sweetheart of his youth as the wife of another.
He, too, had stood by a sick-bed in the same place.
His fiancée, Fräulein Ruth Rosenthal, after lying
hopelessly ill at Falkenstein for six months, had died,
and his dreams of wealth through this marriage had
come to naught.
“Here, I say, he met again his rejected sweet-
heart, and she loved him still—him whom she had
never forgotten, for whom her faithful heart still beat
in the same deep love. Gentlemen of the jury, you
should mark well what I am about to say, but I beg
you not to attach more importance to it than I attach
myself. It is a fact, nothing more. As in this case
I am protesting against more weight being attached
to the facts than they naturally contain, I should be
the last to force more meaning into these circum-
stances than the facts warrant.
“Fritz Sterner had at his own request spent six
months in England, with the object of studying Eng-
lish law. He was attached to the office of the well-
known English solicitor, Sir Longland Hearne, of
London, whose name my learned friend has made such
powerful use of in the prosecution, and to whom I re-
spectfully defer. What my learned friend has told you
about this distinguished English lawyer and about


224 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
the will which made Elisabeth Saarbrücken the heiress
of Lord Faringdon is true word for word. The pe-
culiar tone in which the statement was made to you,
by which it was directed against my client, belongs to
my learned friend; it will not mislead anyone. I let
all this stand, as the prosecution has stated it, as far
as facts go; I will only add that Dr. Fritz Sterner
was the man who, in the course of his training in
English legal documents, sketched this will. This fact
is well known; he himself has admitted it; if I men-
tion it here, it is only because it does not appear in
the documents of this case. It belongs to them, and
now it is added to them.
“When, therefore, Dr. Fritz Sterner met again
his former fiancée at Falkenstein, he was aware that
besides being Saarbrücken's wife, she was Lord Far-
ingdon's heiress. He talked to her; he had frequent
and long conversations with her. He had no reason
for telling her of this; why in the world should two
people who had so much to say to each other about
their common memories of the past talk about the
present and its matter-of-fact events? If Elisabeth
Saarbrücken had not forgotten Fritz Sterner, then he
had forgotten her just as little. One always returns to
one's first love, as our lively western neighbours say.
And even if one is a Prussian criminal judge, one is
not exempted from this universal rule.
“During this spring the young and promising
jurist, whose career seemed to lie open to him, ap-
plied for and obtained the modest post of magistrate


THE TRIAL
225
e
at Homburg vor der Höhe. It was thought that he
came here to be near the place where his fiancée had
fought her last fight and now lay in her family vault
in the Mosaic cemetery at Frankfort. I believe I may
say that it was to be near that garden, where his first
and only love was blossoming anew. I have men-
tioned the fact that Dr. Sterner and Frau Elisabeth
Saarbrücken had long and frequent meetings at Falk-
enstein, where she visited her brother's sick-bed, and
where he had the hospitality of his sister. 1
“I have not spoken of the man who was found one
day murdered under the thick leaves of the rhodo-
dendrons in the park of Homburg. That is to say, I
have described only the young lord who passed his
holidays at the country-seat in Kent. I now return to
him, and I beg you, gentlemen, to follow me back a
few years.”
The clock in court struck its firm strokes, and the
president interrupted the advocate. The sitting was
at an end; it was adjourned, and the court emptied
slowly. The next day was a Jewish festival, and the
following one a Catholic. The adjournment, there-
fore, was for two days; it was almost too much for
the suspense of all concerned. O
Isidor Rosenthal had had a great day; his friends
flocked around him and shook his hand. His speech
had made a mighty impression, and by so completely
breaking away from the beaten path and throwing an
entirely new element into the case, he had brought
the expectation of the hearers to the utmost tension.


CHAPTER SIX
TERNER left the court in a state of violent
excitation. He had expected of course that the
advocate would attack his labours in the case;
he was also quite prepared to be paid out for the
rather disobliging way in which he had received Ros-
enthal on their first meeting in connection with this
affair; but he had never dreamt of hearing his private
life exposed in turgid language before the gaping
crowd. Nor had he expected that Isidor Rosenthal,
who had the reputation of being a gallant man,
would have given such pitiless publicity to Lizzie's
concerns. Sterner had been engaged to Fräulein Ros-
enthal, a relative of the advocate; her family had been
opposed to the match, because Sterner, like many
North Germans, was not very friendly disposed
towards the plutocracy of Frankfort. But the whole
affair was in reality a delicate, extremely romantic
story; the struggle of a poor girl with a fatal illness
upon her to win a gleam of happiness; and Sterner
had anyhow behaved both handsomely and chival-
rously towards her. It was not to be supposed that
the man who had been represented with so much elo-
quence-genuine or otherwise, it did not affect the
227


230 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
encouragement, and above all to conceal the nervous-
ness that continued to plague him.
They spoke of Rosenthal's offensive attack, and
Sterner did not spare his opponent:
“ While this charlatan was speaking I felt for the
first time how wretchedly empty the art of oratory is.
He did not know you, he did not know me. He
talked of our love, as love is described in bad novels.
And yet it sounded so natural to the others. It was
lies every word-lies. What does he know about what
I felt? What does he know about your motives ? He
talked about tearing aside the curtain that conceals
the holy of holies. The mummer stood before his
booth and gave a pantomine for the benefit of his
honoured public, who paid him by the applause he
was angling for. He read to the mob a couple of my
letters to you—your letters that you sent me in your
anger and which I destroyed, because I do not care
for keeping letters which have reached their destina-
tion. Madame Schultz must have found an opportu-
nity of stealing some of them; God knows what use
the old woman thought she could make of them. But
now she must have sold them to Schaltz.—Can you
understand how this annoyed me?-I was not angry,
my vexation was eating into me, because it was all
lies, such thumping lies as a man can invent when he
keeps within a few points of the truth. Try to play a
Beethoven sonata half a tone false all through; it will
be a concert fit to be performed in Dante's Inferno-
and it was just that Rosenthal did to-day. Sometimes


THE TRIAL
231
he was half a •tone too high, sometimes half a tone
too low, there wasn't a true note in his speech. It
was disgusting.
“And those idiots swallowed it all.
“That's why I went-I wouldn't listen to it, I
wanted to get out into the open air, under the free
sky.
“But it's no use talking about it; it's over and done
with, and for you and me it doesn't matter; now I
am calm again and don't grudge the fellow his
success."
Lizzie looked at him seriously. “Don't you think
it did us good to hear this? We have both sinned,
you against me and I against you, and this was our
punishment."
Sterner made a face.-“ Dear Lizzie, you mustn't
talk like that. Can't you understand how perfectly
indifferent it is? It was only that it sounded so ugly,
so repulsive in the false notes of that man's speech.
beautiful.
“Ruth Rosenthal was a strange girl; you know,
we met in Corsica; she was consumptive, condemned
to death, and she knew it. She conceived an affection
for me, and used to say playfully that death should
not cheat her of the only joy her life had offered her.
That was romantic—she was romantic. She was mar-
vellously handsome, with a gentle, Oriental kind of
beauty, and she was the cleverest woman I have
known; when only twenty she possessed a store of


232 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
knowledge such as I have never met with before. It
was a whim of hers, a fantastic idea; you remember
the letter she wrote to you—you did not answer be-
cause you did not understand her. She wrote that in
two years she would be dead, that you must wait two
years. I told her no lies; I admit that she exercised
a wonderful influence over me during those days
spent under the southern sun—but I did not love her,
and I did not lie to her.
“It sounds commonplace and stupid when I say it,
but I could not find it in my heart to refuse her-I
humoured her, not as that talking-machine said to-
day, because she was rich, but because I thought it
would be a crime to deprive her of her happiness
what she called her happiness "
Lizzie interrupted him.
“But how could you—you who were mine, who
had given me your word?”
Sterner took her hand. “I could then, Lizzie, and
I will tell you why. I loved you the day I saw you
here at Falkenstein for the first time as Saarbrücken's
wife. You mustn't take your hand away, Lizzie, I'm
holding it and I shall hold it fast forever. But that
is the truth. We played together as children, we pre-
tended that we were meant for each other when we
were little. We met again; you were then a young
woman, just entering life. Our childhood's friendship
was renewed, and in our inexperience we called it
love. I wonder we did not use the wrong name. No,
Lizzie, I'm not saying this to excuse my conduct. I


THE TRIAL
233
ion of my Saarbrücku him, yes,
feel that it is in no need of excuses and I stand by it.
What I am saying is true. And when I became con-
scious of my love for you, when we met again the
other day, I felt that I was in love for the first time.
When we were young, when we exchanged vows, as
he put it to-day, then we were friends and compan-
ions—and those were happy days—but not lovers. I
say that, because now I know what love is. And there-
fore I could humour Ruth Rosenthal, therefore I
could be false to you, as you call it-my friendship
to the dear companion of my youth remained unal-
tered. And you—you married Saarbrücken— "
Lizzie tore her hand away. “I married him, yes,
but I loved you—I know no distinction between early
friendship and love, as you do—I have loved you
since the first day we met as grown-up man and
woman, yes, long before, I have always loved you
and when I broke with you, I did it in anger-deeply
wounded as I was—call it revenge- "
“Lizzie, Lizzie,” said Sterner with a smile, "you
mustn't use words you can't manage. All that you are
saying comes straight out of a modern drama of mar-
riage, it is French, it is Northern, it is Pan-German,
it is anything but you. May I tell the story, as you
would tell it, if you were able to define why you
married him. It sounds just like an everyday story,
so plain and North German, but still so true; you
married because your mother wished you to, because
you were poor, your mother was weary and Saar-
brücken was rich. Yes, yes, yes, you're not to frown


234 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
like that. I know so well that for you money is in-
different—but your mother's wishes, your mother's
prayers are not indifferent. You were hurt, you did not
answer, you shyly hid yourself with your sorrow, just
as lately, when we met again, you anxiously avoided
me and did not come to me until there was a question
of saving a man's life-Lizzie, you are like an open
book to me, and that is why I love you. Your mar-
riage with Saarbrücken was a sacrifice; it does not
make you appear great in the eyes of the world, that
kind of sacrifice never does; but it does not lessen you
in my eyes, because I understand you. But the truth
is this, Lizzie, that neither you nor I knew before
what love was. We all think we know it, we read
about it in books, we see love depicted in plays, we
see it in real life—that is, we see the effects of it, and
only the few psychologists see what love is. But
everyone, even the simplest peasant girl, can feel
love, and no one makes any mistake about the feel-
ing. Our happiness has come now, it is for us to hold
it fast, not to talk about how we have wronged each
other.
“When you avoided me the other day, when we
met again, when you dared not to speak to me or con-
fide your sorrows to me—when you deputed your
childhood's friend Cecil to open the way for me by a
divorce—for that was your object—then I saw that
you loved me, then I saw that now it was love, al-
though you did not throw yourself into my arms and
hide your face on my breast, as you did long ago.
ne
n-


236 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
be annoyed, it was stupid; now I have come to my
senses again, and now I'm going to eat Rhine salmon
with you."
“But people !"
“People—dearest Lizzie, for us people don't
exist. Come.”
Lizzie went with him, and soon they were sitting
under the Erlkönig's loggia, while the sun sank over
Falkenstein and the reddened tree-tops of the forest.
Lizzie was surprised to see how gay Sterner was,
as though he had violently shaken off all his serious-
ness; he laughed and joked not nervously but quite
naturally, just as if it had been a merry holiday excur-
sion, and not a meeting with the woman he loved at
a time when the welfare of both was at stake and a
trial for murder threw its shadow over their path.
“Fritz," said Lizzie, as they were leaving, “to-
day it occurred to me that if they concluded the case
before you came, you would not be able to fulfil your
promise to me.”
Sterner laughed. “A needless anxiety, Lizzie; I
can assure you that the cask Rosenthal opened to-day
will furnish drink for at least one day more. I told
you that I am not going to speak until the others
have let off all their froth. It's a great mistake to mix
sound reason with the speech of fools."
“You don't do Rosenthal justice," said Lizzie
seriously. “His language is high-flown and bombas-
tic, it is true, but he has a gift."
Sterner shrugged his shoulders.


THE TRIAL
237
“I think if I chose I could crush him by interven-
ing in this case. I am strong, I have power over my
words and my thoughts. It takes ten men like Rosen-
thal to make one of me. That's rather a bragging
expression, but I know what I'm saying. I can tell
you, I was burning to stand up and show the fellow
how empty and hollow his eloquence was and how
few words it would take to put him down. Of course,
I didn't do it—I don't do tricks of that kind. Wait
and see; what I have to say will come just where it
will take effect, and without any waste of words."
“What do you think he will try to do?” asked
Lizzie.
“First of all, save Saarbrücken's neck by pulling
the circumstantial evidence to pieces. Perhaps that's
not so very difficult, though it will be a fine piece of
work to do it well. After that comes his crowning
feat, to show that I am Saarbrücken's personal
enemy, and that therefore not the slightest weight is
to be attached to the evidence I have got together.
Let him do it; it is I that have the last word in the
matter."
“Do you think that is all?”
“Everything is possible," Sterner answered;" but
after all, Lizzie, do you think it is wise of us to
speculate about what Mr. Isidor Rosenthal may take
it into his head to say? It would be another thing if
we were fighting him, if I were prosecutor in this
case or even if I had an interest in proving Saar-
brücken's guilt. But I am a spectator, nothing else,


238 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
and besides that I have promised you, if I am able,
to save his wretched life. Not at the expense of
truth, but-well, we needn't talk about that; I shall
keep my promise. What we ought to be talking
about, though, is what you had better do, when—as
is quite likely after what has happened to-day—your
husband is let out of prison."
Lizzie blushed.
“You must go away, Lizzie, you must go to-mor-
row, not later. There will be some business to settle,
and that I shall have to do with Herr Isidor Rosen-
thal. It will be quite a treat to me to pay that gentle-
man a visit in his office and talk business with him,
though I admit that in financial and commercial
questions Herr Isidor Rosenthal is certainly my
superior."
“I believe you don't do Rosenthal justice," said
Lizzie. “He is clever, and he knows what he wants.
You saw how he changed the whole atmosphere of
the case to-day—changed it so that one could not
recognise it as the same.”
Sterner raised his glass and said with a smile: “I
shall not drink to Rosenthal's prosperity, that would
be insulting this good wine; but I drink to the happy
chance that made him the second speaker instead of
the first; for if he had been the first, dear Lizzie,
you would not have come to see me, and all that
which stood between us would not be buried in the
ground that grew this grape.”
Lizzie smiled.


THE TRIAL
239
Sterner that evening was more jocular than he had
been for years, and Lizzie wondered at it. It had
never been his way, so why should it be so just now?
—but she did not ask. .
It was arranged that she should go to England on
the following day and there await news from Sterner.
She relied on his intervening, as he had promised, if
it became necessary.
They separated early, and Sterner drove back to
Homburg. Outside his house he met Schaltz, who
stepped aside and saluted respectfully.
Sterner stopped. “Oh, Schaltz," he said in a
casual way: “ tell me, is it to you we own the valua-
ble information from Hamburg ?”
Schaltz turned red.
Sterner surveyed him calmly. “You are making
a mistake, my good Schaltz. It takes sharper wits
than yours to carry out a masterstroke; and this
might have been a masterstroke. The blow that is
aimed at me will fall short.”
Schaltz still said nothing.
Sterner felt a sudden desire to push the matter to
extremes. He added in a perfectly quiet and cool
tone:
“You should advise Herr Rosenthal to accuse me
directly of committing the murder. And then you
should prove it. That would anyhow be something
of an achievement. To produce a couple of letters,
stolen by an unfaithful servant, is nothing much to
boast of.”


THE TRIAL
243
not been able to show how he spent his time that
evening.
“Here I have a new fact. I shall prove that Lord
Faringdon was in Frankfort, and that he was directed
to Cronberg on the evening of the seventh by a man-
servant at Saarbrücken's house.
" It is true that his presence at Cronberg is not
fully proved; a waiter at the railway hotel saw a man
who to all appearance must have been he. He left
the hotel to look for a carriage to go to Falkenstein,
and since that no one saw him. He was in possession
of a return ticket to Frankfort, which he did not use.
He did not return to Frankfort, I say. He did not
expect to be returning to Homburg, otherwise he
would have had a return ticket between Frankfort
and Homburg. He was found murdered in Homburg
Park on the eighth at five o'clock in the afternoon.
“ It is incredible that the murder was committed
by daylight in the much-frequented park. The sun
rises at three.
“Therefore in the interval between twelve o'clock
and three he must have returned to Homburg with-
out passing by Frankfort.
“He may have taken a carriage at Cronberg and
driven the short distance. This is improbable, since
evidently he was in no hurry to get back to Homburg
and would certainly have taken the train. How then
did he get back ?
“I have now reached a point, gentlemen of the
jury, when I feel that you will listen with astonish-


244 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
ment to what I am going to say. It is a hypothesis
that I advance, a hypothesis that seems to cast a
shadow upon a man whose behaviour does not seem
to warrant it. But just because it is a strong man,
capable of defending himself, whom I attack, I feel
no compunction in making that attack. I affirm that
the man who made it possible for Lord Faringdon to
cover the distance between Cronberg and Homburg
on the night of July 7, before three o'clock, was Dr.
Fritz Sterner, in whose automobile Lord Faringdon
traversed the distance from Cronberg to the spot
where he met his death!”
Isidor Rosenthal ceased speaking, and a wave of
murmurs rose and fell through the court. All eyes
were turned on Sterner, who was leaning back in his
chair with his arms crossed. His features were un-
moved. Apparently the stroke had missed him alto-
gether.
The president of the court sprang up, leaned for-
ward towards Sterner and asked him, in a voice
trembling with emotion, whether he wished to reply
at once.
"No," answered Sterner briefly; " I want to know
what that man still has to say."
Isidor Rosenthal continued; he described Dr. Ster-
ner's motoring expeditions, and brought out that on
the afternoon of the seventh of July he had left Hom-
burg on one of his usual trips to Cronberg and
Falkenstein ; how Schaltz had called on him in vain at
ten o'clock that evening, and how his housekeeper


246 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
ter's heiress, a circumstance which loses all its weight
when we remember that he was on the point of agree-
ing to a divorce.
“5. The circumstance that the dagger fits the
wound.
“6 The circumstance that a witness states that she
saw him in the Park at half an hour after midnight,
near the scene of the murder.
“I beg you to notice that all these circumstances
can very well be explained away, but that they can
just as easily be explained in a way which rouses most
serious suspicions as to my client's guilt. I shall, there-
fore, before going any further, place before you the
other set of circumstantial evidence, which can be
directed against Dr. Sterner:
“1. He can be proved to have been absent from
his home during the same time as Saarbrücken; it is
true that he has not been asked to explain his doings
during these hours; but if he does explain them, in all
probability his explanation will be no more satisfac-
tory than I admit my client's to be. As to the drive
to Homburg, he must be able to give information if
he will.
"2. He was formally engaged to Frau Saar-
brücken, left her for another, and afterwards resumed
his friendship with her, during the time immediately
preceding the murder.
“3. He left her because she was poor; afterwards
he knew she would be rich, in the event of Lord Far-
ingdon's death.


THE TRIAL
: 247
VOI
“4. Lord Faringdon's appearance in the rôle of
her admirer; he had known her as a child, and he had
just obtained her husband's consent to make way for
him. Dr. Sterner was active in promoting the di-
vorce. Are we to suppose that his object was to allow
the sweetheart of his youth to become Lord Faring-
don's wife?
“5. Dr. Sterner has in his possession a dagger-
an absolute match to the one with which the murder
was committed, as is supposed. I shall now take the
liberty of reading a passage from Dr. Sterner's justly
famous book, "On Criminal Investigation,' page
166:
"It is of great importance that the investigating
magistrate should be acquainted with the use of
weapons, especially of such weapons as leave an
unmistakable mark in the wound, the dagger, for
instance, a favourite weapon with Italians. The
author, during a stay in Corsica, has himself taken
lessons in the use of the national vendetta-dagger,
and according to the opinion of his master, an out-
and-out bandit, acquired the twelve or fourteen dif-
ferent master-strokes, delivered from before, from
behind, from above, and from below, according to
the laws of this noble science of attacking the un-
armed. On some occasions the author has made
successful use of his knowledge and skill.”
Isidor Rosenthal again made a pause.
Sterner's face was unmoved; he sat leaning back
in his chair as though the whole thing did not con-
cern him at all.
.


248 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
There was great commotion in court. The presi-
dent had to call for silence; he turned again to Ster-
ner, and asked him, this time in a stiff, almost un-
friendly tone:
“Do you still wish to make no statement ? "
“No,” Sterner answered shortly, with a bow to
the president.
The president made a sign to Rosenthal to con-
tinue.
The advocate turned towards the jury. “Gentle-
men of the jury, if Dr. Sterner stood before you
charged with murder on the strength of what I have
mentioned, would you then dare to say: This man
has murdered the admirer of his first love, whose
death would make her rich; while he threw her over
because she was poor; he has given way to his pas-
sion, when he was alone with his victim on a dark
night, and under such circumstances that he would
be able in his official capacity to throw the guilt upon
another, against whom at first sight everything seems
to speak?
“Gentlemen, I think not. I think that upon such
evidence you would not venture to find Dr. Sterner
guilty of murder.
" And I venture to say that the evidence against
my client is much less than this.
“For what is the meaning of this circumstantial
evidence which from the very first day, here as every-
where that the news of Lord Faringdon's death was
made known, has been sufficient to stamp Saarbrücken


THE TRIAL
249
as his murderer? Each circumstance by itself means
nothing. That Herr Saarbrücken owed money to a
friend, and that the death of this friend might have
made him a rich man, is in itself no reason for sus-
pecting him of having murdered that friend. But it
becomes downright inadmissible to draw this conclu-
sion from these facts, when it has been established
that on the very day Saarbrücken had come to an ar-
rangement with Lord Faringdon whereby his wife
would be set free and at the same time their money
matters would be settled. This has not been proved,
but I ask you to note that Saarbrücken's statement to
this effect is confirmed by his wife's communication to
the court, that she expected Lord Faringdon that
evening about the matter in question, and that he
went to Cronberg presumably to find her. What if
we were to suppose in this case that the circumstance
of Lord Faringdon's death making a rich woman
of the lady he loved was an indication that Dr.
Sterner was the murderer? Would anyone believe
in that assumption ? And yet the fact is that, while
an agreement for the divorce, such as Saarbrücken
says had taken place, would remove all induce-
ment for Saarbrücken to commit the crime, the
same agreement would make no difference at all
in Dr. Sterner's position. Is it not therefore ab-
surd to call this a piece of evidence against Saar-
. brücken?
"I shall not refer again to the locket; that does
not need further refutation; nor to the question of


250 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
the dagger! I have shown that there are two daggers,
and their name no doubt is legion.
“There is, however, one point I must dwell upon:
the statement that Saarbrücken was seen in the park.
It is correct. If he refuses to explain it, it is because
it is connected with the duty of silence which he so
chivalrously maintains on this point. You know me,
gentlemen of the jury, and I believe my words have
weight with you. Saarbrücken's presence at that spot
has been fully explained to me. I am pledged to
silence, and I must renounce the explanation of this
fact. If, gentlemen, you will condemn Saarbrücken
to death on this piece of evidence, then why not con-
demn the woman who saw him ?—she was there too;
and if, as I have shown, the circumstances do not
justify us in regarding Saarbrücken as Lord Faring-
don's murderer, what is there then to throw suspicion
upon him rather than upon her?
“However, it is not my intention to accuse this
poor woman; there must be more who were in Hom-
burg Park that night, and if that is all the evidence
against them, it is nothing. I might ask Dr. Sterner:
Where were you on the night of the 7th-8th July last,
at half an hour after midnight? I must insist most
emphatically that on the basis of the evidence that
has been produced, Saarbrücken cannot be convicted.
He had absolutely no real interest in the death of
Lord Faringdon; on the contrary, with his wife op-
posed to him and supported by a stranger, and with
the question of the legacy and whether it was to come
De


THE TRIAL
251
to them both or to his wife alone still undecided, he
would be far worse off after his friend's death than
when he was alive. And yet he is accused of the mur-
der, while there seems to have been no hesitation
about placing the attack upon him in the hands of a
man who in Lord Faringdon's death would see the
accomplishment of his dearest wishes, for whom that
event would open the way at once to happiness and
wealth—and the only way.
“That is what one may call convicting a man on
circumstantial evidence l”.
The advocate concluded with a great sweep of the
hand, bowing to Sterner. “I shall now conclude, and
I am convinced that Dr. Sterner will forgive me for
having in the course of my speech raised hypotheses,
which it will be easy for him to reduce to the place
they ought properly to occupy in the case.”
There was a great sensation in court as the advo-
cate took his place, and some little time elapsed be-
fore order was restored.
Counsel for prosecution rose, and turned directly
to Dr. Sterner.
“Before I reply to my learned friend, whose
speech I have listened to with increasing astonish-
ment, I trust the court will allow Dr. Sterner, who is
here present, and against whom the counsel for the
defence has made an attack, of which I have never
heard the like, in the course of a long practice at the
bar, to make a few remarks which may have the effect
of bringing the case down to terra firma again from


254 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
though it was empty. A few seconds passed, and then
there was a buzzing, as it were, over the heads of
the crowd, not of words, but of thoughts. This buz-
zing resolved itself here and there into single broken
words, with a gradually growing noise.
The president commanded silence.
Sterner continued, unmoved as before, turning
towards the president:
“Lord Faringdon was at Cronberg on the evening
he was murdered. I was there, too, as often before,
on a visit to my sister and my brother-in-law. As I
came down the hill at Falkenstein and was going to
turn into the road that leads past the castle to Hom-
burg, I was stopped by Lord Faringdon, whom I
knew, though only slightly. He told me he had
missed the train and asked me to give him a lift in
my car, which, of course, I did. On the way we
talked of indifferent things, and arrived at Homburg
at half past ten, just as it became quite dark. Lord
Faringdon did not want to stop at the hotel, where he
was staying, but asked me to put him down at the
end of the old town; here he said good-bye to me and
thanked me for the lift. All this is perfectly natural.”
The president interrupted, rather sharply: “It
seems to me, Dr. Sterner, that this statement should
have been included in the documents. That it is not
there is your fault."
Sterner drew himself up and replied in a firm, clear
voice: “There I am obliged to disagree with the
president of the court. I acted within my rights, as I


THE TRIAL
257
sinuation. If I remember right, the murdered man
had a season ticket between Frankfort and Hom-
burg. Doubtless he did not use it on the evening in
question, but he had it. The other hypothesis of the
defence, about my supposed relations with the wife
of the accused, as well as the fantastic account of my
alleged skill with weapons, I may well leave un-
touched. I am not accused. I shall not criticise my
colleagues' labours in the case, but I must admit-
and perhaps my words will have some weight—that
it has not been fully cleared up.
“When on July 17th last I formally retired from
the case, I became a spectator. Mrs. Saarbrücken,
who during the whole time has shown the greatest
sympathy for the accused, and who has refused to
take advantage of his position to go on with the di-
vorce case which had already been prepared—Mrs.
Saarbrücken, I say, begged me very urgently to help
her husband. Under ordinary circumstances nothing
would be more welcome to me than to comply with
every one of Mrs. Saarbrücken's wishes, to say noth-
ing of so noble and unselfish a wish as this—but my
answer was No.
“I consider Saarbrücken guilty-I still consider
him at this moment guilty of Lord Faringdon's
death, and yet, if I now decide to step out of the circle
of mere spectators, where I have a full right to re-
main, it is to comply with Mrs. Saarbrücken's wish
and bring him help.”
There was a threatening murmur in court, a mur.


262 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
look at the advocate; he seemed to be turning over
his words before he spoke.
"You are Herr Saarbrücken's legal adviser in all
his affairs ?"
The advocate bowed.
“Good," continued Sterner. “I shall have to cor-
respond with him on behalf of Frau Saarbrücken
about the divorce. I wish to be of service to her, and
therefore I come to you. Has Herr Saarbrücken
talked to you on this matter?”.
“No," answered the advocate shortly. Sterner
could see that he was not speaking the truth.
The advocate went on: “Besides, it is a private
matter."
Sterner did not allow himself to be disturbed; he
continued in the same tone: “I think you must ad-
mit, though, that it is not altogether a private matter.
Frau Saarbrücken is still here. Lord Faringdon's
legacy has not yet been paid; it amounts, as perhaps
you know, to 120,000 pounds sterling, or about two
and a half million marks. Frau Saarbrücken does not
wish it to be paid, because she is living under commu-
nity of goods with her husband. I will add that I am
aware that you have tried on his behalf to have the
matter settled, but that you have met with difficulties
in London.” .
The advocate bit his lip: “ Difficulties to which
you are not a stranger."
“Quite right,” remarked Sterner coolly. “Diffi-
culties which it will not be easy to remove."


268 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
her fortune and her liberty at the same time. If you
do not believe me, you may inquire about the case,
which is sufficiently well known. You barristers ought
to be more zealous in your study of foreign cases.
Just think, Herr Rosenthal, what a success this story
would have made in a certain case in which we were
both interested!”
“Blackguard!” hissed the advocate, moving a
step nearer to the door of the outer office.
Sterner had risen and stood with crossed arms:
“You are getting too warm, Herr Rosenthal. You
are mistaken if you think I intend anything with this
story except to draw your attention to what the
English courts might be inclined to think, if Frau
Saarbrücken and I, to whom everything but our fu-
ture happiness is absolutely indifferent, were to
translate the story I have just told into German or
English and connect it with ourselves. You have
never been magistrate, otherwise you would know
that the enthralling thing about that position con-
sists precisely in the contrast between the great un-
certainty and the little word 'confession.' Every-
thing may be believed, everything may be doubted,
but confession is binding. Especially voluntary con-
fession. I leave it entirely to you to make your
choice, but I beg you to tell Herr Saarbrücken every-
thing I have told you, and as you must confess that
you are just as far off as ever from knowing with
certainty who is the murderer of Lord Faringdon,
you might perhaps gain at least one step forward


270 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
I wonder whether, after all, Moritz Rosenthal & Co.
have not paid too much for that head?”
The advocate pretended not to have understood.
Sterner spoke again. “Herr Rosenthal,” he said,
"you are a sensible man; will you make a bargain ?"
"If you will lay your cards on the table-per-
haps !” was Rosenthal's answer.
“Very well,” said Sterner. “I am not so fond of
money as you gave the public to understand in your
eloquent speech. Not now, in any case, since I have
grown older, and my course, in spite of your late
eloquence, is quite clear before me. I will not dis-
appoint your confidence, but on the other hand I will
not give that blackguard Saarbrücken more than is
absolutely necessary."
“You ought not to use such language about my
client," said the advocate mildly; “ even if you look
upon him as a murderer."
Sterner smiled. “Well, we need not quarrel about
words, in private anyhow. You cannot possibly be
ignorant of the fact that the situation created by
your eloquence makes the case an extremely difficult
one, from the point of view of civil law. And even
from that of criminal law it is very unsatisfactory
for every one except Saarbrücken and you as his
counsel. For you as representative of Moritz Rosen-
thal & Co. it is by no means so pleasant. Now mark
well what I say. I am going to offer to help you
to find a clearer issue for the case; I offer to address
the court to-morrow and propose a new hypothesis,


THE TRIAL
271
which perhaps contains the final certainty—the posi-
tive truth."
The advocate pricked up his ears. What on earth
was the man driving at?
"I might have thought,” said Sterner in a very
friendly tone—“that you would have accepted a
less dramatic, more humdrum method, a method
which in fact was not so very far to seek. No mat-
ter—the case would have been far less interesting,
your success—I acknowledge that it was a success—
would have been less brilliant for the moment, but
the whole affair would have gained in clearness.
You have now established that either Saarbrücken
or I might have murdered Lord Faringdon. I say
nothing to that. As Saarbrücken will probably be
acquitted and I am not likely to be convicted, it
only means that the case has not been advanced a
single step since the day they found the murdered
lord's body. And it must be admitted that in spite
of brilliant details, that is a somewhat meagre result.
Don't you think so ?”
“It's no business of mine," said the advocate with ·
slight annoyance.
Sterner continued: “I myself have been follow-
ing up another line, and perhaps it will interest you
a little. Not so much as the line you chose yourself,
because to put it mildly it places your client in a
rather unfavourable light. But you must admit that
the halo you have thrown round him can't be kept
up. Let us see him as he is. The world soon finds


272 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
out people of his stamp. You say that on the fatal
evening Saarbrücken had an appointment with a
lady. You thought it was nice of him not to betray
her, but you nevertheless considered it necessary to
inquire her name, didn't you?"
Rosenthal nodded. “On that point I am profes-
sionally engaged to secrecy."
“There is no necessity for you to reveal the pro-
fessional secret. For I believe I know who the lady
is. And, to be brief—it is Madame Giulia Del-
phini.”
Rosenthal gave a start—but said nothing.
“There, you see,” said Sterner. “May I now tell
you what I have hitherto concealed for the same
reasons that I mentioned in court, though I cannot
flatter myself that my address found such a ready
echo among the audience as yours did. Lord Faring-
don confided to me that evening, while I was driving
him from Cronberg to Homburg, that he had an
assignation. It had been his intention to see Frau
Saarbrücken, but this obliging gentleman put his as-
signation before the important affair that brought
him to Falkenstein. He further confided to me that
his friend Saarbrücken, after they had come to their
agreement, had promised to keep the husband out
of the way and in fact to arrange the meeting for
him. That was what made Lord Faringdon so well
disposed towards Saarbrücken. I have believed hith-
erto that Saarbrücken enticed Lord Faringdon into
a trap, and then murdered him himself. I am now


THE TRIAL
273
willing to admit the possibility of another hypothe-
sis, namely, that Saarbrücken certainly enticed Lord
Faringdon into a trap, but that it was the lady's
husband, Signor Delphini, who accomplished the
deed. And as we here have to deal with a wronged
husband, we can perhaps say manslaughter instead
of murder.—That is my line."
While Sterner was speaking, the advocate became
uneasy; he rose and walked nervously up and down
the room. Then he stopped suddenly.
“You can scarcely ask me, as counsel for the de-
fence, to accept the consequences of this perfectly
gratuitous hypothesis.”
Sterner shrugged his shoulders. “I don't ask any
such thing; you mustn't think I am trying in the
least to influence you with regard to your position as
defending counsel. I came to talk about the finan-
cial question. And I still stand by Frau Saarbrücken's
offer. This is a genuine solution of the murder case,
which I thought it best to put before you, to show
you the expediency of our coming to an under-
standing.
“When I rise to-morrow in court, you will hear
this hypothesis—and it will be supplemented by
something uncommonly like positive proof. I too
have been busy lately, and it is by no means certain
that I should not have intervened in some way or
other, even if I had not been challenged to do so
by your very effective defence."
Rosenthal was nervous.
8


CHAPTER NINE
"MMEDIATELY after the opening of the next
sitting of the court, Dr. Sterner was called
upon and rose to speak amid audible signs of
displeasure.
“I shall not return to the question, whether I
acted rightly or wrongly in not communicating to
Dr. Braun the fact that I drove Lord Faringdon on
the night of the murder from Cronberg to the old
town gate at Homburg. Dr. Braun knows that I dis-
cussed at length the question of the importance of
establishing where Lord Faringdon had been and
when he had come home. I did that just as much for
my own sake as for his. If in the course of that con-
versation any new points had arisen, which showed
it to be my duty to speak, I should have spoken.
“No such points arose, and I kept silence.
“ It is otherwise with the question I am now going
to touch upon, which has quite another importance
for the case. At the very beginning of the investiga-
tion attention was called to the tenants of the little
cottage in the Park, Signor Delphini and his wife.
They had left, no one knew where they had gone. I
examined their servant, Nathalia Stolzi, and heard
|
W
275


THE TRIAL
277
place. He did not tell me the lady's name, nor did
he mention the time or place; but on the other hand
he told me that Saarbrücken in this matter had done
him what he called a friendly service, by undertaking
to keep the husband out of the way and thus facili-
tate the meeting. I did not get the impression that
the meeting was of a very grave character-on the
contrary; and I did not give the matter another
thought, until I heard the news of Lord Faringdon's
death.
" It then became clear to me that Saarbrücken had
enticed his friend into a trap, and at first it did not
occur to me to connect this trap with any real per-
sons, such as the lady mentioned by Lord Faringdon.
I looked upon her as a fictitious person, invented by
Saarbrücken for his criminal purpose.
“That was my view at the beginning of the
case-I tried several times to get Saarbrücken to
admit the trap. My last examination of him will
certainly be found to contain a question on this
point.
“He obstinately refused to answer me.
“I then altered my opinion and assumed that a
real person was concerned; and my thoughts fell
quite naturally on the Delphini couple. From motives
of precaution I did not mention their name; I did
not wish it brought forward publicly at this stage of
the case. I retired from the case without doing more
than earnestly drawing my colleague's attention to
the tenants of the cottage.


278 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
CO
“I was requested by the wife of the accused to
remain outside the case, and I retired from it for this
reason, not to spare anyone, but because no one may
rightly be judge in his own case; and the feelings this
affair called up in me—I venture to say here, before
this assembly—had made it my own case. The man
whom I as examining magistrate had to convict,
stands between me and the woman I love.
“I withdrew from the case when it became clear
to me that, in spite of all that had happened, or per-
haps rather because of all that had happened, I loved
this woman. I venture to assert that I acted rightly.
And if I did not give a full explanation of all this to
the magistrate who followed me, a man I respect and
honour, but who is personally a stranger to me, it
was because I would not give expression to my sus-
picion that Saarbrücken had enticed Lord Faringdon
into a trap, until this had become more than a sus-
picion, a certainty supported by facts.
“That time, gentlemen, has now come, and there-
fore I speak out, as a party in my own case, and not
as a magistrate.”
A murmur went through the audience; all eyes
were turned to Sterner, as he stood there upright and
calm; he had regained their confidence, everyone was
for him.
He went on. “I made use of my time, after I had
retired from the case, to trace the Delphini couple.
A few days ago I succeeded; I found the husband,
stood face to face with him, but it was in a cell of a


280 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
applause of the crowd. He was now a serious man,
who knew what was at stake; a man who had come
to a resolution; a man who had weighed every word
he was to speak, not to angle for applause, but to do
his duty in saving a man's life.
“Gentlemen of the jury,” he began; “I bow to
the last honoured speaker. Dr. Sterner is not only an
ornament to the legal profession, to the bench of
magistrates, to which he belongs; he is an ornament
to our German society, a knight without fear and
without reproach. He has not spoken without giving
me warning; knowing that the fate of a human being
is at stake, he has given me an opportunity of ad-
dressing those questions to the accused, which he has
just asked the President to put.
“I have asked, and I have received an answer.
“The man who murdered Lord Faringdon was
Signor Delphini.”
Again there was sensation in court, and hands were
angrily shaken at the accused, who still sat in the
dock in a state of dull collapse.
Rosenthal raised his hand in deprecation." Judge
not, judge not, until the jury have spoken. German
law gives the accused full right to speak frankly to
his counsel, and his counsel is not empowered to re-
peat his words. What Helmuth Saarbrücken has told
me about that night, will not go beyond my lips.
Madame Giulia Delphini is dead, her reputation
must be without blemish, since nothing is known that
can give anyone a right to accuse her of any action


THE TRIAL
281
that would put a stain on her name. Higher Powers
have removed her husband from the ranks of respon-
sible beings; we must have compassion on the fearful
fate that has overtaken him.
“But Helmuth Saarbrücken stands here accused,
and the accusation against him is now stronger than
ever before: I feel it in the atmosphere and I can
read it in the faces that are now turned towards him.
“ Judge not!
“Helmuth Saarbrücken has told me that he did
not entice Lord Faringdon into a trap; that he did
not hear of what had happened until the next day;
and that, when he met the witness, Stolzi, in the
Park, he was waiting about to prevent what must
have happened a short time before."
A loud hissing followed the advocate's words. The
President had to interfere, but the noise increased,
and it was not till he threatened to have the court
cleared that the excitement subsided.
Rosenthal continued in a firm and authoritative
tone:
" It is a maxim of German law that no one can be
condemned on loose suppositions alone. There is
nothing in the case to disprove what I have just
stated. On this point we have no right without a
shadow of evidence to throw doubt on a man's words.
But even otherwise, even if you, gentlemen of the
jury, were convinced that Saarbrücken told Delphini
that his friend was going to meet Madame Delphini,
then in that case Saarbrücken would certainly have


THE TRIAL
283
question before the jury altered after what had
transpired, and the question of the completeness of
the evidence taken up again. It was obvious that the
case was now wholly in the domain of legal techni-
calities; its deep human interest was clear to all.
Rosenthal demanded that the case should be pro-
ceeded with without alteration, and the President
called upon the accused.
Saarbrücken rose.
“ Helmuth Saarbrücken, do you wish to add any-
thing to what your counsel has advanced?”
Saarbrücken answered the question by a simple No.
The court proceeded to discuss the question, and
arrived at the result that the fresh facts did not in
themselves contain circumstances that furnished fur-
ther proof of the accused being guilty of the murder,
and that from what had been laid before the court
they were not justified in postponing the decision of
the question before the jury; especially as the new
points were of an uncertain nature and did not offer
possibilities of wording the question differently from
the form in which it lay before the jury.
After this ruling the President summed up in a
short speech to the jury. He acknowledged that the
evidence produced by the prosecution was incomplete,
and even reminded them that, supposing this evi-
dence still possessed its full force, there had yet been
a moment in the course of the trial when everyone
could see that in spite of the circumstantial evidence,
anyone else—nay, even the magistrate who had had


THE TRIAL
285
but this is not enough to decide the question before
you. For this can only be understood thus: did Saar-
brücken murder Lord Faringdon?
“And that is just what none of you in such case
could believe.
“This deed is shrouded in darkness, the proceed-
ings of the court have brought no light to bear upon
it; on the contrary, they have had the result that
probably it can never be fully brought to light.
There is nothing to prevent a new case being raised;
but the question we have to decide must be answered
without reference to what may possibly come out in
a new case. You must not, gentlemen, allow your-
selves to be blinded by the glare of villainy that
seems to surround a man who would use the uncon-
trollable wrath of a wronged husband as a means of
attaining his end and getting another man out of the
way. In the first place it has not been proved; in the
second, this question certainly does not coincide with
that which is put to you.
“It depends upon the accused, whether at this
stage of the case he wishes to have the evidence sup-
plemented. He does not wish it.
"Now it is for you to speak, after taking due note
of these words of mine."
While the President was speaking everyone felt
that the accused was already acquitted; for however
great was the indignation against Saarbrücken among
the audience, there was not one of those present who
would have dared to find him guilty of Lord Far-


286 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
ingdon's murder after what had come out in the
course of the trial.
And thus it happened that this trial, looked for-
ward to with such eager excitement, came to its con-
clusion without any dramatic effect, without the tra-
! ditional silence of expectation, without the solemn
horror of the verdict and sentence, but quietly, al-
most as a matter of course, by Saarbrücken being
found by the jury Not guilty of the murder of Lord
Faringdon.


CHAPTER TEN
N an old Frankish bow-window in the anteroom
of the court stood Isidor Rosenthal deeply en-
gaged in conversation with Dr. Sterner.
Sterner had been congratulating the advocate, for
the result meant that he had won his case. Rosen-
thal smiled as he answered: “The triumph was big-
ger yesterday than to-day. You took the palm from
me when you stood up and gave your final summary."
“That doesn't matter," said Sterner. “ It was you
who saved Saarbrücken's neck, for if my information
had stood alone, without your annihilating criticism
of the circumstantial evidence, the man would have
been condemned. It only shows, to my mind, that
trial by jury is an invention of the devil; for no
trained lawyer would take it into his head to convict
a man on the strength of what was brought against
Saarbrücken. It is quite another question that I am
still convinced that the man has been guilty of a
piece of villainy, an action even lower than if he had
used the dagger."
Rosenthal shook his head.
“I believe you do him an injustice. As you very
properly remark, no lawyer would have convicted
287


THE TRIAL
289
and bore his imprisonment like a good boy, until I
came and shook him up.—Yes, I'm inclined to believe
his story. Saarbrücken's a German, and Delphini's
an Italian.”
Sterner shook his head. “I may be wrong; as I
said, it's my own case. I may be wrong, but do you
think Saarbrücken would have gone to the scaffold
with his mouth shut, if he had been condemned?”
The advocate smiled a really beaming smile.
“No, Dr. Sterner, I don't think so; for I told him
last night that if he wasn't speaking the truth his
head would fall here in the prison-yard.”
“That need not mean that he is innocent. If the
facts were as Saarbrücken says, and as you—in any
case appear to believe, if this man, who in that case
is innocent and who is the only one besides the mur-
derer that knows what happened, has kept silence
and borne his long imprisonment and the prospect,
which seemed pretty near at one time, of being con-
demned to death, all because it would look rather
bad that he, Lord Faringdon's friend, had betrayed
the love affair to the wronged husband-a love affair
which was innocent into the bargain—no, you won't
get me to believe that. And let me add-you don't
believe it yourself either. Saarbrücken is lying. You
have saved his neck. As to the question of the leg-
acy, Frau Saarbrücken abides by her offer; but you
must admit that after what has happened, she cannot
very well be expected to bear that man's name for
many days longer."


CONCLUSION
IR LONGLAND HEARNE had a country
house in the Isle of Wight, with an outlook
over Cowes Roads and the green woods by
Southampton Water. The garden came down to the
water, and at a little distance from the shore lay the
German cutter Alerte, one fine summer's day, rock-
ing like a swan under its proud rigging.
Under the verandah of the house stood the
Alerte's owner, Dr. Fritz Sterner, and his young
wife, newly married, on their wedding tour and on
a visit to the owner of the house.
Sterner was browned by the sea air and Lizzie's
eyes gleamed with happiness.
Now they two had come into port.
And that is really all that remains to tell. A year
had passed since the assizes at Frankfort-on-the-
Main had concluded the case against Saarbrücken.
The Italian Government had refused to extradite the
banker Delphini, for the excellent reason that he was
already under lock and key in a lunatic asylum. He
had been taken there immediately after a visit to
Switzerland, during which he had had the misfor-
tune to lose his young wife, who had fallen from a
291


292 THE MAGISTRATE'S OWN CASE
precipice in the Graubünden Alps. The German as
well as the Italian papers had a good deal to say
about this case. Its direct effect was to bring about a
liquidation of the firm of Fürste & Wienecke of
Frankfort, whose head, Helmuth Saarbrücken, had
already departed for South America, after being
divorced from his wife.
Indirectly it had brought promotion and perma.
nent happiness to Dr. Fritz Sterner.
To Isidor Rosenthal it had brought some private
satisfaction and much public distinction. Only for the
eighth Baron Faringdon and his family at Roxley
were its effects painful. Mr. Wells consoled himself
in other ways.
Sir Longland talked in his quiet and serious way to
his guests of the troublous days at Homburg vor der
Höhe. But Frau Lizzie Sterner stood listening in
silence, while her eyes shone lovingly upon her hus-
band.
Sterner, on the other hand, took the opportunity
of summing up the matter in a generalisation. This
had become a habit with him now, since he seldom
met with contradiction.
“I have had a lesson, Sir Longland," he said,
“never to follow up one clue to the exclusion of
others, never to let go a task that has been once
begun, and, in addition, a profound contempt for
circumstantial evidence. I intend before long, if
my wife will allow me the time, to publish a
work on the absolute untrustworthiness of circum-


THE TRIAL
293
stantial evidence and a proposal for the abolition of
the jury.”
Sir Longland Hearne smiled.“ So you want to see
a sort of judicial absolutism introduced ? "
“Perhaps,” said Sterner. “I should prefer to
abolish all criminal tribunals; but as I suppose that
to be impracticable at present, I would suggest that
only the very cleverest, most experienced, and in
every way most distinguished lawyers to be found
should be appointed judges, after having shown by
a long and honourable life that they are devoid of
all foolishness and incapable of loving any woman-
not even their own wives.” .
“Well, that means that you are going to retire,
doesn't it?” said Lizzie with a smile.
“It amounts to that," replied Sterner.
THE END