And Tanya saw its owner now--a huge workman in a blouse, who had risen and stood before Herr Hochwald, both fists clenched in a fury.
"I am a poor man," he cried, "I make what little we have to eat at my house with the labor of these two hands. I have given money--money that might have gone into bread for my children. Where is she? Where is Fräulein Korasov?"
Herr Hochwald faced the man calmly, waiting for him to finish. Then with a hand raised for silence he stood smiling and self-possessed. When the noise had subsided he spoke again.
"You ask me where she is? I tell you that I do not know. She has escaped----"
"How? Why? Did you not----"
"I drove with her in a cab to the Bureau of State Railways where I had sent the machine in which I had arrived from Switzerland. It was my intention to take her somewhere into the country and keep her under guard until the missing bag could be found. But upon the road I was set upon by two men who disarmed and beat me, and Fräulein Korasov went with them. You will see," he finished, pointing to the bruise upon his cheek which Rowland had inflicted. "You will see by this scar that I did not come off unscathed."
He was clever enough to bait his lie with truth and they listened to him and believed. He did not notice, nor did they, the slip of paper which was brought in to Georg Senf, who read the message eagerly and then looked at his watch. The big workman was questioning again.
"Who were those men who attacked you?"
"How should I know," replied Hochwald. "The same who took the suit-case from the Haupt Bahnhof? I do not know. I know nothing more. The money is gone and all trace of Fräulein Korasov who took it."
He stood easily, amid the uproar, that was renewed, smiling again, triumphant. Georg Senf rose in his place, held up his hand.