The Hangman's Daughter

“And that is exactly where we’re going now, to pay the kids a visit.”

Hastily the hangman filled the grave in again. Then he seized the spade and the lantern and ran to the wall of the cemetery. He was just about to heave his heavy body up the stone wall, when a figure appeared on top of the wall. It stuck out its tongue at him.

“Ha, caught you at grave robbing! You look like the Grim Reaper in person, only a bit fatter.”

“Magdalena, damn it, I—”

Jakob Kuisl snatched at his daughter’s leg, intending to pull her down to him, but with a quick movement she jumped to one side and strutted along the wall. Disdainfully, she looked down on the two grave robbers.

“I figured you would go to the cemetery. Nobody puts one over on me! Well, Father? Did you find the same dirt under the boys’ fingernails as with Johannes?”

The hangman looked angrily across to Simon. “Did you tell?”

The physician held up his hands trying to calm him down. “I never! I only told her about poor Johannes…and that you had examined the fingernails very closely.”

“You idiot! You must not tell women anything, above all my daughter. She’s too good at reading between the lines and figuring things out.”

Jakob Kuisl tried once more to grab Magdalena’s leg, but she was already a few steps farther on, balancing on the wall toward the church. The hangman hurried after her.

“Come down from there at once! You’ll wake up the whole neighborhood, and then all hell will break loose!” he whispered hoarsely.

Magdalena grinned down at her father. “I’ll come down, but only if you tell me what you’ve found out up to now. I’m not stupid, you know that, Father. I can help you.”

“Yes, but come down first,” growled Jakob Kuisl.

“Promise?”

“Yes, damn it.”

“Do you swear by the Blessed Virgin?”

“By all the saints and devils, if I must!”

Magdalena jumped down from the wall and landed directly in front of Simon. The hangman raised his hand threateningly, but then let it drop with a sigh.

“And one more thing,” Magdalena whispered. “The next time you are standing in front of a locked gate, just look round a bit. Sometimes you can find things.” She held a big shiny key in her hand.

“Where did you get that?” Simon asked.

“Out of a little hole in the archway. Mother always hides her key in the wall too.”

Deftly, she put the key in the keyhole, turned it once, and with a little squeak the iron gate opened. Without speaking, the hangman pushed past his daughter and hurried in the direction of the Lech Gate.

“Come on!” he hissed. “There isn’t much time!”

Simon had to grin. Then he took Magdalena’s hand and hurried after him.

Sophie held her breath as once again steps passed quite close to her hiding place. She could hear the voices from where she was hiding with Clara, who in the meantime was sleeping peacefully. Since her last attack of fever at noon, Clara’s breathing had steadily become more regular, and it seemed she was on the way to recovery. Sophie envied Clara for sleeping. She herself had hardly been able to close her eyes for four nights. She was tortured by the fear of discovery, and now once more she could hear footsteps and voices. Men were walking overhead and appeared to be looking for something. But they were not the same men as last time.

“There’s no point in doing this, Braunschweiger! We can keep on digging until hell freezes over. The field is much too big!”

“Shut your mouth and keep on looking. There’s a lot of money somewhere around here and I’m not going to let it rot.”

The voices were now directly above her. Sophie held her breath, surprised. She knew one of them. Fear crept slowly from her stomach to her throat, and she was only barely able to keep from screaming.

Another man called out to the first two from a bit farther away. “Have you looked in the chapel? It must be here somewhere! Look for some way in, a hole, a loose flagstone perhaps…”

“We’ll do that in a minute!” said the voice above her. Then it suddenly became quieter. The man seemed to be speaking to the one standing near him. “That lazy dog Moneybags! Sits there under the linden tree and thinks he has to play the supervisor. But just wait. As soon as we’ve found the treasure, I’ll cut his throat myself and sprinkle the blood all around the chapel!”

Sophie pressed her hands to her mouth. She had almost cried out loud. She also recognized the second, more distant voice, the man under the linden. She would never forget either of them.

She remembered.

“Little brat, why was he eavesdropping on us? Now the fish are drinking his blood. Let’s look for the others…”

“Holy Mother of God, did you have to do that? Did you really have to do that? Look at the bloody mess! They’ll be looking for the boy!”

“Oh, nonsense. The river’ll wash that away. We’d better catch the others. They mustn’t escape us.”

“But…they’re only children!”

“Children can tell stories. Do you want them to give you away? Is that what you want?”

“No…of course not.”

“Then don’t make such a fuss. Miserable Moneybags, earning your money with blood but unable to look at it. That’s going to cost you something!”

Miserable Moneybags… Sophie breathed more rapidly. The devil was there, right above them. He had caught three of them, and only she and Clara were left. And now he would catch them.

There was no escape. Surely he could smell them.

“Wait a minute—I have an idea where the treasure could be,” called the voice. “How would it be if…”

At this moment there was a scream outside, and farther away someone groaned in pain.

A little later all hell broke loose. Sophie put her hands to her ears and hoped it was all just a bad dream.

Simon cursed as he slipped once more on the boggy ground of the clay pit and fell into the red mud. His hose was smeared all over with clay and his boots got stuck in it so firmly that he had trouble extricating himself. The hangman and his daughter stood at the edge of the pit and looked questioningly down at him.

“Well?” Jakob Kuisl called down into the pit. His face was lit by a torch so that it glowed as a point of light in the otherwise complete darkness. “Any hollows or niches?”

Simon managed to shake the largest clumps of dirt from his doublet. “Nothing! Not even a mouse hole.” Once again he held up the torch and looked around the pit. The torch let him see just a few yards. All else was swallowed up in darkness. “Children, can you hear me?” he shouted once again. “If you are here any where, let us know! It’s all right. We are on your side!”

Only the noise of a thin stream of water could be heard, otherwise there was silence.

“Damn it!” grumbled Simon. “What a stupid idea, to go looking for the children in the clay pit in the middle of the night! My boots are two slimy clods of dirt, and I might as well throw my doublet away!”

Jakob Kuisl grinned as he heard the young physician cursing.

“Don’t make such a fuss. You know very well that time is short. Let’s have a look in the tile kiln.”

He held the ladder steady while Simon clambered up over the slippery rungs. When he reached the top, Magdalena’s face appeared in front of him. She held the torch so that it shone right in his eyes.

“You do look rather…beaten up,” she giggled. “Why did you keep falling over on your nose?”

With the corner of her apron she wiped the clay from Simon’s forehead. It was useless. The colored soil stuck to his face like paint. Magdalena smiled.

“Perhaps I’ll let you keep a bit of the dirt on your face. You’re a bit too pale around the nose anyway.”

“You be quiet. Otherwise I’ll start asking myself why it was me who had to climb down into this damned pit.”

“Because you are young, and a few tumbles in the mud won’t hurt you,” came the hangman’s voice.