MURDER
Some horror-filled moments passed before I grasped the full significance to me of the unfortunate woman's death. I turned dizzy and bewildered like a drunken man, and could do nothing but just stare at the body, literally stupefied by the suddenness of it.
It wasn't the fact of death that startled me; I had seen too many dead bodies at the Front to be much concerned.
But I made a big effort to pull myself together. I examined her to be certain that she was really dead, for the body was still warm. There was no doubt about it. The poor thing had been choked, and the marks of the murderer's fingers showed on her throat.
There had been a struggle in the room, and some of the wretched furniture had been overturned. My wits were beginning to clear by that time; and I was glancing about the room wondering who had been brute enough to commit the murder and what I had better do, when I made a discovery that told me everything and turned the blood in my veins icy cold.
In examining the body I had disarranged the bedclothes slightly, and by the side of the neck, just where it would have fallen from the murderer's finger, lay a ring.
Von Erstein's! The puzzle ring he had once shown and explained to me! It was impossible to mistake it; and there was probably not another ring like it in Berlin.
I didn't lose my head that time; the instinct of self-preservation was too strong to allow of any other feeling. My one absorbing thought was to get away before any one could come.
I darted back into the sitting-room and snatched at my hat which I had left on the table. In my flurry I fumbled. It fell to the floor and rolled under the table; and when I grabbed for it again, the quaint little card case which Rosa had given me lay open just beside it.
Too obsessed by the desire to get out of the place, I had no other feeling than a faint satisfaction at finding it again; not realizing for an instant the full significance of the incident I pocketed the thing, picked up my hat and left the flat. I took care to shut the door; this would serve to postpone the discovery of the murder; went down the staircase without undue hurry, made sure there was no one to see me leave, walked leisurely away until I turned the first corner and then made off at a rapid pace.