“And you?” Muller’s eyes bored themselves into the orbs of the young giant, now dulled with fear.
Gyuri started and shivered. “He looked at me sharply every now and then,” he murmured.
“No, not only for that reason,” continued No. 302. “Gyuri needed money again. He ordered me to bring him the silver candlesticks off the altar.”
“Murder and sacrilege,” said the detective calmly.
“No, I did not rob the church. When I had buried the reverend gentleman I heard the cock crowing. I was afraid I might get home here too late and I forgot the candlesticks. I had to stop to wash my hands in the brook. While I was there I saw shepherd Janci coming along and I hid behind the willows. He almost discovered me once, but Janci’s a dreamer, he sees things nobody else sees--and he doesn’t see things that everybody else does see. I couldn’t help laughing at his sleepy face. But I didn’t laugh when I came back to the asylum. Gyuri was waiting for me at the door. When he saw that I hadn’t brought the candlesticks he beat me and tortured me worse than he’d ever done before.”
“Why, no; because I was afraid that if I told on him, I’d never be able to go out again.”
“And you, quite alone, could carry the pastor’s body out of his room?”
“How did you arrange it that there should be no traces of blood to betray you?”
“I waited until the body had stiffened, then I tied up the wound and carried him down into the crypt.”
“I didn’t want to leave him in that horrid pool of blood.”
“Why, yes; it looked so horrid to see him lying there--and he had always been so good to me. He was so good to me that very evening when I entered his study.
“Certainly. He sprang up from his chair when I came in through the passage from the church. I saw that he was startled, but he smiled at me and reached out his hand to me and said: ‘What brings you here, my dear Cardillac?’ And then I struck. I wanted him to die with that smile on his lips. It is beautiful to see a man die smiling, it shows that he has not been afraid of death. He was dead at once. I always kill that way--I know just how to strike and where. I killed more than a hundred people years ago in Paris, and I didn’t leave one of them the time for even a sigh. I was renowned for that--I had a kind heart and a sure hand.”