But he scraped the earth about it and pressed it at the edges with his foot.
Nothing could be noticed.
Then he went out, and turned into the square.

Again an intense, almost unbearable joy overwhelmed him for an instant, as it had in the police-office.

"I have buried my tracks! And who, who can think of looking under that stone?
It has been lying there most likely ever since the house was built, and will lie as many years more.

And if it were found, who would think of me?
It is all over! No clue!" And he laughed.
Yes, he remembered that he began laughing a thin, nervous noiseless laugh, and went on laughing all the time he was crossing the square.

But when he reached the K---- Boulevard where two days before he had come upon that girl, his laughter suddenly ceased.