Magdalena doubled up, ready for the next blow.
“Not yet,” the devil mumbled. “First let’s get the treasure.”
“Damn it, Braunschweiger!” Hans Hohenleitner said, holding his bleeding nose. “There is no treasure. Can’t you get that inside your sick head?”
The corners of the devil’s mouth started to twitch again, and his head moved in a wide circle, as if he was trying to release some internal tension.
“Don’t you ever call me…sick again, Hohenleitner. Never again…” His eyes darted from one soldier to the next. “And now I’ll tell you something. We’ll stay here one more night, just one more. You take the girl to a safe place, and I’ll get you the treasure by tomorrow morning. You’ll have ducats coming out of your arse. And then we’ll see to the girl, all of us.”
“One more night?” Hans Hohenleitner asked. The devil nodded.
“And how are you going to find that treasure?”
“Leave that to me. You just take care of the girl.”
Christoph Holzapfel stepped closer again.
“And where are we supposed to hide, huh? The place will be crawling with troops tomorrow.”
The devil smiled.
“I know an absolutely safe place. They won’t find you there. And you’ll have a great view.”
He told them the place. Then he set out for the town. Magdalena bit her lips. Tears were streaming over her cheeks. She struggled to turn her face away from the soldiers. They mustn’t see her cry.
The two men were standing near the building site watching the workmen. Some of the bricklayers and carpenters waved to them. Perhaps they were wondering what business the two men had here, but they didn’t harbor the slightest suspicion. The two men there were respected burghers. Presumably they just wanted to see for themselves how the construction was proceeding.
There wasn’t much left to see of the last day’s damage. The walls of the leper house were being raised again, and there was a new roof truss on the walls of the chapel. Two bailiffs were sitting at the edge of the well in the middle of the clearing, killing time by playing dice. The court clerk had ordered the entire area to be guarded day and night, and his orders had been quite precise, as usual. They had nailed together a wooden shelter for the bailiffs, where they could get cover from the rain. There were lanterns hanging on the outer wall of the shelter, and two halberds were leaning next to them.
“And you have really searched the entire place?” the older man was now asking.
The younger man nodded. “Everything. And several times. I really don’t know where else we could look. But it
The other man shrugged. “Maybe the old miser was lying. Maybe he was delirious on his deathbed. An old man’s feverish ravings, and we fell for them…”
He groaned loudly and held his side. He had to bend over briefly for the pain to subside. Then he turned to walk away.
“One way or another, the matter is over and done with.”
“Over and done with?” The younger man ran after him, grabbed him by the shoulder, and turned him around. “What do you mean, over and done with? We can still keep looking. I haven’t paid the soldiers in full yet. For just a few more guilders they’ll raze everything to the ground here and root about like hogs. The treasure is somewhere here. I…I can feel it!”
“Damn it, it’s over and done with!” The older man pushed the younger man’s hand off his shoulder almost in disgust. “The area is under surveillance. Besides, you’ve stirred up enough dirt as it is. Lechner knows about your soldiers, and the hangman and that Fronwieser fellow are on your heels. They stick their noses into everything. They even went to see the priest. It’s too much of a risk for us. The matter is over and done with, once and for all!”
“But…” The younger man held him back another time.
Indignantly, the older man shook his head, holding his side once more. He gave a loud groan.
“I have plenty of other things to think about now. Thanks to your soldiers we’ll have the count and his men in this town tomorrow. And presumably we’ll have a big trial, people will be dragged off to the stakes again, and Schongau will go to the dogs. And all because of you, you damned idiot! I’m ashamed. For you and for our family. And now let go of me. I wish to go.”
The older man stomped off, leaving the younger man behind at the building site in the mud. Mud was all over his shiny leather boots, but he wouldn’t give up! He was going to show the others! A wave of anger came over him.
Some of the workmen waved at him, and he waved back, but they couldn’t see his face, which hatred had turned to stone.
CHAPTER 14
MONDAY APRIL 30, A.D. 1659 TWO O’CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON
Simon ran down the Hennengasse with Anna Maria Kuisl to the Lech Gate and on through the tanners’ quarter. The news that something might have happened to Magdalena spurred him on faster than he had ever run before. Soon he had left the hangman’s wife far behind. His heart was racing, and a metallic taste filled his mouth. In spite of this he didn’t stop until he arrived at the hangman’s house. There it stood, in the most beautiful midday sunshine. Some finches were chirping in the apple trees in the garden, and from far off the calls of the raftsmen could be heard. Otherwise all was quiet. The bench in front of the house was empty, and the front door stood wide open. Under one of the apple trees an empty swing was moving slowly in the wind.
“My God, the children!” Anna Maria Kuisl had caught up with Simon in the meantime. “Not the children too-”
Without finishing her sentence she ran past Simon into the house, and he followed her inside. In the living room they encountered two five-year-old angels of innocence sitting in a pool of milk. Next to them lay a broken pitcher. They were eating honey with their fingers from an earthenware bowl and were covered from head to toe in white dust. Only then did Simon see that the flour barrel had also been toppled over.
“Georg and Barbara, just what are you…”
Anna Maria was about to begin an angry tirade, but the relief at finding the twins unharmed was too great. She couldn’t help laughing out loud. However she quickly got a hold of herself once more.
“Upstairs and into bed with you, you two! I don’t want to see either one of you down here for at least an hour. Just look at what you’ve done!”
Contritely, the twins trotted upstairs. While Anna Maria Kuisl wiped up the milk and swept up the shards and the flour, she told Simon again briefly what had happened.
“I arrived here, and there he was sitting on the bench, as if he had been turned to stone. When I asked him what had happened he only said that Magdalena was gone. That the devil had taken her. The devil, my God.”
She threw the shards carelessly into a corner and pressed one hand to her mouth. Tears ran from her eyes. She had to sit down.
“Simon, tell me, what does it all mean?”
The physician gave her a long look without answering. Thoughts raced through his mind. He wanted to jump up and do something, but he did not know what that might be. Where was Magdalena? Where was the hangman? Did he follow her? Could he perhaps know where the devil had taken his daughter? And what did the man want with the girl?
“I…I can’t tell you exactly,” he murmured finally. “But I think that the man responsible for kidnapping the children has gone off with Magdalena.”
“Oh God!” Anna Maria Kuisl buried her face in her hands. “But why? Why? What does he want from my little girl?”
“I think he wants to blackmail your husband. He wants us to stop pursuing him and leave him alone.”
The hangman’s wife looked up with hope in her eyes. “And if you do what he wants, will he let Magdalena
