Dr. Mabuse, master of mystery a novel
their nerves, dedicating to a life of the senses powers which would
have made them successful in the walk of life for which they were
destined. Hull and his kind, feeble and enervated, represented the
spirit of the age. What would the dawn of such a midnight yield?
Wenk went to the telephone and gave the address of the new
gaming-house. The official whose duty it was to watch over Herr Hull
was to get in touch with him at once, but do no more than keep him in
sight when he left the house.
* * * * *
In the middle of a deep sleep the telephone at Wenk’s bedside began
ringing. It was just two hours since he had returned home, and he was
wide awake at once. “Wenk speaking!” said he, and he felt certain in
some subconscious region of his mind, which was in tune with his last
waking thoughts, that the news awaiting him on the telephone was in
some dread, mysterious fashion concerned with Hull.
“Wenk speaking!” he called again, and his whole body was trembling with
excitement.
“Here, sir; the police sergeant on duty.”
“Be quick!” said Wenk, his imagination running riot. What was there to
report?
The voice at the other end spoke hastily: “The gentleman named Edgar
Hull, who was under police protection ... has been murdered this night.
In the open street, too, about 2 a.m. Another gentleman, name of
Karstens, has been seriously wounded. The constable who was detailed
to watch over him is also wounded, and both have been taken to the
hospital. A lady who was with these gentlemen was arrested at the order
of the wounded man. I have ordered the body to be left lying exactly as
it was found until you have seen it yourself. The Service car is on its
way to your honour. Please ring off!”
“Ring off!” echoed Wenk’s voice agitatedly.
He hastened to dress, for the car was already to be heard throbbing
outside. He went down the dark staircase, forgetting to turn a light
on. Then, when he perceived the car in the street, his profile revealed
the jaws drawn firmly together, in the necessity of meeting calmly the
tragic circumstances in which he was involved, and entering into every
detail of this deed of blood perpetrated in the darkness of the night,
so that he might be enabled to act to the best advantage.
During the drive, something within him compelled him to take himself
to task. “I had no business to tremble,” he thought, “when this news
reached me. I must be prepared to face even my own death unflinchingly.
I must school myself further. I must develop all my tastes and
interests and use them in the service of my life’s goal; then only
shall I be equal to my task....”
Hull’s body lay in the darkness. Four men in sombre clothing were
silhouetted around him, and they stepped back as their chief descended
from the car. Wenk ordered them--they were constables--to watch the
entrances to the street and allow no one to approach the scene of the
murder, which was in a gloomy street-turning behind the Wittelsbach
Palace. Not a soul was to be seen in any of the houses.
One of the constables said that none of the public had been near the
place since the occurrence.
It was now three o’clock in the morning. By the light of an electric
torch Wenk gazed upon the corpse. There was a gaping wound from the
neck down the back, and the body lay with its face to the earth. Thus
the police had found Hull when their colleague, blinded with pepper
and bleeding from a wound, whistled for help. The body lay motionless,
curled up like the gnarled root of a tree. The blood which had flowed
from its wounds shone like black marble under the searching light. Wenk
was convulsed with horror at the mental images he sought to overcome.
He tried to photograph the details of the scene upon his memory,
getting the exact position of the corpse. He wrote down the number of
the house, tried to ascertain whether all the doors and windows in the
neighbourhood were closed, whether any footprints could be seen, or any
objects connected with the crime found in the immediate vicinity, but
nothing was to be discovered. Its perpetrators had escaped into the
palace grounds, one of the policemen had told him, and at one bound
they had disappeared. Wenk examined the walls; there, too, there was
nothing to be learnt.
He sent a constable to fetch a car to remove the body, and ordered that
nobody was to come into the street on any account. Those who tried to
force their way in should be arrested, but people were to be treated
with politeness, he said. He then drove to the hospital where the
wounded men were lying.
He found Karstens unconscious, and the doctor informed him that he had
had a severe wound in the back from a narrow and apparently four-edged
dagger, and a blow from some blunt object had probably been aimed at
his head. The constable had not been so severely handled, and his were
mainly flesh-wounds. His shoulder and upper arm were bandaged, but he
could scarcely open his eyes even yet.
He related his story thus:
“Just before 2 a.m. the deceased, with a lady and another gentleman,
came out of the house which had been pointed out to me. In front of it
a constable was standing, and that seemed odd, for I thought to myself,
‘Why is he standing there instead of being on his beat?’ He stood there
for at least an hour; then I thought I would speak to him, but he said
roughly, ‘What do _you_ want? Go away,’ and came threateningly towards
me. I was just going to show him my number-plate when the door opened,
and although it was dark I could recognize Herr von Hull. The constable
pushed me away, and as I did not want to be noticed I moved aside, but
I saw that Herr von Hull had a lady and gentleman with him. They went
off quickly in the direction of the Ludwigstrasse, and the policeman
and I were about three houses away in the other direction. Then he
turned to the house again, saying to me, ‘Now you had better be off!’ I
didn’t bother any more about him, but followed, at some distance, the
lady and the two gentlemen. They turned out of the Türkenstrasse into
the Gabelsbergerstrasse and disappeared from my sight. I hurried after
them, but could not see them anywhere. They could not have got any
further than the Jägerstrasse. Suddenly I heard cries; they were shrill
and then stifled. The war had taught me that that was how men in fear
of death cry out. Before I could even see anybody I whistled for help,
and ran to the street as hard as I could, drawing my revolver.
“I hadn’t gone far when I was suddenly seized from behind. My eyes
smarted terribly, and I felt a thrust in my shoulder. I wanted to pull
the trigger, but my revolver was no longer in my hand and my arm hung
quite limp. Then I thought, ‘I had better do as our major used to
advise us--fall down and lie as if I were dead.’ So I fell down and
someone sat on me, and shoved something at me, holding my mouth. There
may have been two of them; I can’t tell, for I closed my eyes. They
must have rushed at me from a doorway, and I was half insensible by
that time. What happened after that I do not distinctly remember, but I
heard footsteps running, and I was lifted up. It was another constable,
and I quickly told him what had happened and he ran on into the street.
Then a second one came running up. ‘Police!’ I shouted to him. ‘Yes,’
he called back; ‘what is the matter?’ ‘Run round the corner, quick!’ I
told him.
“I forced myself to rise, and then found I was not so badly wounded
after all, though I couldn’t open my eyes. They had thrown pepper at
them. I groped my way round the corner, but I could not see anything.
It was the noise that guided me to the spot. I heard someone speaking,
and a woman’s voice answering. ‘What is the matter?’ I said, and a
voice answered, ‘He said we were to take the female into custody.’
‘Who are you?’ I asked the woman, and she answered, ‘I am an actress,
the friend of Herr Hull. What do you want with me?’ I said, ‘If the
gentleman said so, arrest her!’ She protested, and said she wanted to
speak to Dr. Wenk, the State agent, at once, but the constable said she
could do that later. Then she tried to run away, and there was a good
deal of confusion and bother, and finally the constable had to handcuff
her, she was so defiant, and I heard her call out ‘George.’ So I told
them to arrest her, and I don’t know what happened after that, for I
fainted, and when I came to again I was in the ambulance. I am badly
wounded. Will your honour please tell me the truth: am I going to die?”
Then the doctor laughed in his face.
“No, please, I want his honour to tell me. It’s the doctor’s job to
tell people they are not going to die.”
“But, my good Voss, how can you imagine you are going to die? You have
some flesh-wounds and some nasty bumps, but a man like you doesn’t die
of those things!”
“Indeed, your honour, I have done my duty!” said the injured man. His
voice began to falter; then the tension relaxed and he began to weep
quietly and unrestrainedly. “I know ... no more.... I have ... done ...
my duty!” he stammered.
“You don’t need to tell me that,” said Wenk reassuringly. “He who
stakes his life upon it certainly does his duty, for no one can offer
anything he values more! But now, Voss, I want you to promise me
something, and shake hands upon it. You won’t tell anyone else what you
have seen or gone through this night ... and I beg the same thing of
you, doctor. A great deal depends upon it, for the public at large. I
beg you to lay this very much to heart. It is not the pursuit of one
crime, but of a generation of crime.”
From the constable who had been first on the spot Wenk learnt that
he had seen several figures near the wall of the park, but darkness
prevented his counting their number, nor could he describe them. He
was stopped by one of the gentlemen, who tried to stand up and then
clutched hold of him, saying two or three times over, “Arrest the
woman--arrest the woman.”
“Then at last he fell back and let me go,” went on the man. “Then I
could run a few steps and I saw those figures close to the wall going
round the park, but when I reached it, there was no one there. They
must have had accomplices on the other side of the wall. I wanted to go
after them, but I couldn’t manage it; it was far too high to climb, so
I came back to the spot.”
“And the woman?” asked Wenk. “What about her?”
“I had the impression....”
“Now, Stamm, I don’t want to hear your _impressions_--I only want to
know what you saw with your eyes and heard with your ears. You will be
scrupulously exact, won’t you?”
“Yes, indeed, your honour. When I came back, one of our men was holding
the woman fast. I said to him, ‘Arrest her; the gentleman there said
so. Arrest her at all costs! Hold her fast, don’t let her escape!’
We were all a bit excited, and she shouted out that she wanted to
see Herr von Wenk, and no one was going to arrest _her_. She made a
good deal of resistance, sir, and finally we had to tie her hands.
There were only two of us, and we had to help the wounded and our own
colleague. We did not know in the least what had happened, for we had
only just....”
“_We?_ Tell me only what you yourself have seen.”
“Then I began to try and find out what had happened. There was a man
lying on the ground bathed in blood. He seemed to be dead, for he was
quite still. The other was groaning. Then a third constable came up,
and we sent him to telephone for the ambulance and make a report to the
Criminal Division and let your honour know. That was what Voss had told
us to do first of all.”
“What was the woman doing all this time?”
“The second of our men took her to the guard-room.”
“Don’t go on with your story, Stamm, till I have spoken to him. What is