JOE MULLER: DETECTIVE





THE CASE OF THE POOL OF BLOOD IN THE PASTOR'S STUDY

by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner



I

The sun rose slowly over the great bulk of the Carpathian mountains
lying along the horizon, weird giant shapes in the early morning
mist. It was still very quiet in the village. A cock crowed here
and there, and swallows flew chirping close to the ground, darting
swiftly about preparing for their higher flight. Janci the shepherd,
apparently the only human being already up, stood beside the brook
at the point where the old bridge spans the streamlet, still
turbulent from the mountain floods. Janci was cutting willows to
make his Margit a new basket.

Once the shepherd raised his head from his work, for he thought he
heard a loud laugh somewhere in the near distance. But all seemed
silent and he turned back to his willows. The beauty of the
landscape about him was much too familiar a thing that he should