"
"How did you arrange it that there should be no traces of blood to
betray you?"
"I waited until the body had stiffened, then I tied up the wound and
carried him down into the crypt."
"Why did you do that?"
"I didn't want to leave him in that horrid pool of blood."
"You were sorry for him then?"
"Why, yes; it looked so horrid to see him lying there--and he had
always been so good to me. He was so good to me that very evening
when I entered his study.
"He recognised you?
"Certainly. He sprang up from his chair when I came in through the
passage from the church. I saw that he was startled, but he smiled
at me and reached out his hand to me and said: 'What brings you here,
my dear Cardillac?' And then I struck. I wanted him to die with
that smile on his lips. It is beautiful to see a man die smiling,
it shows that he has not been afraid of death. He was dead at once.
I always kill that way--I know just how to strike and where. I
killed more than a hundred people years ago in Paris, and I didn't
leave one of them the time for even a sigh. I was renowned for
that--I had a kind heart and a sure hand."
Muller interrupted the dreadful imaginings of the madman with a
question.
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