"And you have not seen it until to-day?"
"No, Herr Hauptmann."
"Then how do you know it is the same one? I suppose it is not the only
doll of its kind in Munich."
"I am sure of it. I was a messenger in the shop, Herr Hauptmann, and I
knew everything there, just as though I had been one of the young ladies
who serve the customers. Besides, you will find my name written in pencil
under the pedestal."
"That is another matter," said the officer, taking the Gigerl and holding
it upside down to the gaslight. The reversing of the thing's natural
position produced some mysterious effect upon the musical box, and the
tune which had been so rudely interrupted by Akulina's well-aimed blow,
suddenly began again from the point at which it had stopped, continuing
for a few bars and then coming to an end with a sharp twang and a little
click. The policemen tittered audibly, and even the captain smiled faintly
in his big yellow beard. Then he knit his brows as he deciphered something
which was written on the pinewood under the base.
"You should have said so at once," he observed. "Your name is there, as
you assert."
"It was written to show that I was to take it. I had it in a basket with
other things. I put it down a moment in the yard of the Hofbraeuhaus, and
when I came back the basket was gone."
"And what do you know about it?" The question was addressed to the Count.
"Seeing that the porter is evidently right," said the Count, covering with
his hat the point from which the button had been torn, and holding the
other hand rather nervously to his throat, as though trying to keep
himself from falling to pieces, "I have nothing more to say.
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