“Fortunately, I mean, because it saved my life and that of my sister here. We were attacked——”
“Do you mean there are any others in the house?” he broke in.
“Certainly I do. The two wretches who appear to have been living here are in a room above.”
Both the man and his wife had kept as quiet as mutes all this time. But they had evidently been listening, for at that moment the door above was opened, and the two came out.
“Is that the police? Is that the police?” cried the woman. “Heaven, and the blessed Virgin above be praised. We’ve been nearly murdered by the two villains there. You’ll protect us now, won’t you? Praise to the Holy Saints for having sent you to our assistance.”
“What’s all this?”
The couple came running down the stairs and threw themselves on their knees; the woman pouring out a voluble account of how they had been attacked by us and their lives threatened, mingled with thanks for their deliverance, entreaties to protect them, and an urgent warning to pay special attention to me as a dangerous and murderous villain.
I foresaw a very awkward complication. When two parties accuse each other, the police rule is to arrest both.
The leader was obviously perplexed. “What is your name?” he said to me; and before I could reply the woman burst in.
“Ivan Krempel, and that’s Nita, his wife,” she cried. “They’ve been using the house for days and days past.”