"Now, this bill, to whose identity I can swear, Herr Redebas received from Brandow on the day after the accident, as a part of the gambling debt due that afternoon; he left the money in his desk without touching it, until he made me a payment yesterday in which was this very note. I asked Herr Redebas--without telling him my reasons--whether he could swear to this statement if necessary; he answered in some little astonishment, but very positively, that he was ready to do so at any moment.
"Brandow, as is well known, had related here and there, that is, had intentionally spread the report, that the five thousand thalers he paid Herr Redebas at noon had been received in the morning from Jacob Demminer, a produce dealer in this place, as part payment on account of the seven thousand for which he had sold his wheat to him. This statement had nothing improbable in and of itself, and as Jacob Demminer bears the reputation of doing any business by which money can be made, even that of a receiver of stolen goods, there was certainly the shadow of a possibility that the master had received in the morning, in payment for his wheat, the very money of which the man had robbed our friend the night before, and thought he had placed in safety with the worthy Jacob, with whom he had perhaps had business dealings for a long time. I say, there is the shadow of a possibility, for the time was rather short; still, we do not yet know where and how Hinrich Scheel spent the rest of the night, so it might have been.
"The worthy Jacob, however, had not this affair at least on his conscience, but the business Brandow wished to transact with him did not take place either. To be sure Brandow was here that morning, and also in the dark hole Jacob calls his counting-room; he took money away with him, too, but only two thousand thalers, and not for this year's wheat, which he had sold to Jacob months before, but for the next year's harvest. He was obliged to sell at any price, in order to be able to show the money at this time, and he could name any sum without fearing that the worthy Jacob would contradict a customer with whom he did such profitable business. The discovery of this trick was also effected by chance, in the person of a poor young Jew, who had worked several years for the worthy Jacob, and gained his confidence, until now his conscience, or I know not what, suddenly urged him to pour out his heart to me, and implore me to save him from this den of crime.
"Let us recapitulate. Brandow, who on the day of the accident was known to be destitute of money, and received only two thousand thalers the following morning, pays Herr Redebas, at noon, five thousand at one stroke; and among this money is the hundred-thaler note which was in the package that disappeared at the time of the accident.
"Disappeared! Why not lost, found, but not restored to its owner?
"Then it would still have been stolen. But from the beginning it was both a theft and robbery.
"Remember that you felt the package in the Assessor's coat-pocket after you left Dollan; that you no longer felt it at the smithy, and yet the coat you had buttoned was still fastened. This, to be sure, is no positive proof--nay, the latter circumstance at first even seems to be against my supposition. Why, it might be said, should a thief so cunning in all other respects intentionally incur an additional risk? But people may try to be too cunning; and it certainly was not known that you had kept your eye on the package all the evening, and afterwards, when you buttoned the Assessor's coat, even had it under your hand. The defender of the accused will, of course, doubt the correctness of this statement, will--but we are not in a court of justice. To me the fact is plain: the Assessor had the money with him at the time of the fall; afterwards, when the two Prebrows raised the poor fellow, while Henrich Scheel stood by with the lantern, he no longer had it--that is, it had been stolen during the interval.
"By whom?
"Undoubtedly by this very Hinrich Scheel, but very, very probably not by him alone.
"Can Brandow have been present at the time?