.. I feared
anything might happen."
"You feared he might take his own life, do you mean?"
"Yes, yes, that is what I feared. But is it not terrible to think
that he should have died this way--by the hand of a murderer?"
"H'm! And you cannot remember any possible friend he may have
found--some schoolboy friend of his youth, perhaps, with whom he
had again struck up an acquaintance."
"Oh, no, no, I am positive of that. John could not bear to hear
the names even of the people he had known before his misfortune.
Still, I do remember his once having spoken of a man, a German he
had met in Chicago and rather taken a fancy to, and who had also
returned to Germany."
"Could this possibly have been the man to whom the letter is
addressed?"
"No, no. This friend of John's was not married; I remember his
saying that. And he lived in Germany somewhere--let me think--yes,
in Frankfort-on-Main."
"And do you remember the man's name?"
"No, I cannot, I am sorry to say. John only mentioned it once. It
was only by a great effort that I could remember the incident at all."
"And has it not struck you as rather peculiar that this friend, the
one to whom the cordial letter was addressed, did not come forward
and make his identity known? G-- is a city, it is true, but it is
not a very large city, and any man being on terms of intimate
acquaintance with one who was murdered would be apt to come forward
in the hope of throwing some light on the mystery.
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