A quiet winter evening had sunk down upon the great city. The clock in
the old clumsy church steeple of the factory district had not yet struck
eight, when the side door of one of the large buildings opened and a man
came out into the silent street. It was Ludwig Amster, one of the
workingmen in the factory, starting on his homeward way. It was not a
pleasant road, this street along the edge of the city. The town showed
itself from its most disagreeable side here, with malodorous factories,
rickety tenements, untidy open stretches and dumping grounds offensive
both to eye and nostril. [...] Reprint of the detective novel starring
Joseph Muller, Secret Service detective of the Imperial Austrian police.