\Please, sir, there is a man outside who asks to see you.\ \What does
he want?\ asked Commissioner Horn, looking up. \He says he has
something to report, sir.\ \Send him in, then.\ The attendant
disappeared, and the commissioner looked up at the clock. It was just
striking eleven, but the fellow official who was to relieve him at that
hour had not yet appeared. And if this should chance to be a new case,
he would probably be obliged to take it himself. The commissioner was
not in a very good humour as he sat back to receive the young man who
entered the room in the wake of the attendant. The stranger was a sturdy
youth, with an unintelligent, goodnatured face. He twisted his soft hat
in his hands in evident embarrassment, and his eyes wandered helplessly
about the great bare room. \Who are you?\ demanded the commissioner.
[...] Reprint of the detective novel starring Joseph Muller, Secret
Service detective of the Imperial Austrian police.