The Hangman's Daughter

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.