You will know by this time that I have determined to end my life by my own hand.  Forgive me, beloved.  I cannot live on without you —­without the honour of which I was robbed so unjustly.

God bless you.

One who will love you even beyond the grave,
Remember your promise.  It was given to the dead. 
          
                                             John.

“Oh, what does it all mean?” asked Eleonora, dropping the letter in her lap.

“It is as I thought,” replied Muller.  “John Siders took his own life, but made every arrangement to have suspicion fall upon Graumann.”

“But why? oh, why?”

“It was a terrible revenge.  But perhaps—­perhaps it was just retribution.  Graumaun would not understand that Siders could have been suspected of, and imprisoned for, a theft he had not committed.  He must know now that it is quite possible for a man to be in danger of sentence of death even, for a crime of which he is innocent.”

“Oh, my God!  It is terrible.”  The girl’s head fell across her folded arms on the table.  Deep shuddering sobs shook her frame.

Muller waited quietly until the first shock had passed.  Finally her sobs died away and she raised her head again.  “What am I to do?” she asked.

“You must open this letter to-morrow in the presence of the Police Commissioner and Graumaun.”

“But this promise?  This promise that he asks of me—­that I should wait until the trial?”

“You have not given this promise.  Would you take it upon yourself to endanger your guardian’s life still more?  Every further day spent in his prison, in this anxiety, might be fatal.”

“But this promise?  The promise demanded of me by the man to whom I had given my love?  Is it not my duty to keep it?”

Muller rose from his chair.  His slight figure seemed to grow taller, and the gentleness in his voice gave way to a commanding tone of firm decision.

“Our duty is to the living, not to the dead.  The dead have no right to drag down others after them.  Believe me, Miss Roemer, the purpose that was in your betrothed’s mind when he ended his own life, has been fulfilled.  Albert Graumann knows now what are the feelings of a man who bears the prison stigma unjustly.  He will never again judge his fellow-men as harshly as he has done until now.  His soul has been purged in these terrible days; have you the right to endanger his life needlessly?”

“Oh, I do not know!  I do not know what to do.”

“I have no choice,” said Muller firmly.  “It is my duty to make known the fact to the Police Commissioner that there is such a letter in existence.  The Police Commissioner will then have to follow his duty in demanding the letter from you.  Mr. Pernburg, Sider’s friend, saw this argument at once.  Although he also had a letter from the dead man, asking him to send the enclosure to you, registered, on a certain date, he knew that it was his duty to give all the papers to the authorities.  Would it not be better for you to give them up of your own free will?” Muller took a step nearer the girl and whispered:  “And would it not be a noble revenge on your part?  You would be indeed returning good for evil.”