When Twain and his companions are near the town of Napoleon, he wants to disembark and stay over. His companions do not want to, and Twain is forced to explain the reason for his wanting to travel to Napoleon. He relates the story of Karl Ritter, a German he met in Munich who was a night watchman for the dead. He had to make sure the dead were in fact dead, with bells attached to their fingers should they arise.

One day, Twain found that Ritter resided in the same boarding house as he did, and was dying. He talked to the man and learned his tragic story. Ritter had had a wife and child who were murdered by soldiers during the war. One of the men did not want to harm his wife and child, but the other one killed them. Since that night, Ritter swore revenge. He deduced where the two soldiers who tried robbing him were stationed, and pretended to be a fortune teller to gain the company’s trust. He eventually realized who the murderer was and, one night, killed him and fled. Later, as he was working as the night watchman, one of the corpses woke up and Ritter saw that it was the murderer, Franz Adler.