"Probably drunk again," witness Berchtholdt piped up. But he also looked as if they had dragged him not from his bakery, but from one of the inns behind the market square. His clothing was spotted with flour and beer, his hair was ruffled up in tufts, and he smelled like an empty beer keg. He guzzled down his wine and refilled the goblet.

"Easy does it," Jakob Schreevogl admonished him. "This isn't a beer hall get-together but a painful interrogation." Secretly he hoped the hangman had run away and that they therefore couldn't proceed with the torture. Yet he knew that this was unlikely. Jakob Kuisl would lose his job, and in only a few days an executioner from Augsburg or perhaps from Steingaden would take his place here. But even a delay of a few days could be enough to find the real murderer or murderers. By now, Jakob Schreevogl was quite convinced that Martha Stechlin had been unjustly imprisoned.

The witness Georg Augustin sipped at his wine goblet and straightened out his white lace collar.

"Perhaps the hangman doesn't realize that we don't have unlimited time on our hands. These interrogations cost me a whole bunch of guilders each time." He cast a bored glance at the instruments of torture as he continued to speak. "Our wagon drivers will just sit around forever in the Stern unless we keep after them. And the paperwork doesn't get done all by itself either. So for heaven's sake, let's get started!"

"I am sure the witch will confess today, or tomorrow at the latest," Lechner said, trying to calm him down. "Then everything will be back to normal again."

Jakob Schreevogl laughed to himself. "Back to normal? You seem to forget that there is a devil on the prowl out there, a devil who has killed three children by now. And my beloved Clara is G.o.d knows where!" His voice broke and he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

"Don't make such a fuss," snapped Georg Augustin. "Once the witch is dead, the devil will come out of her and will disappear to wherever he came from. And your Clara will surely show up again."

"Amen," mumbled the witness Berchtholdt, belching audibly. In the meantime he had started his third goblet. His eyes were gla.s.sy as he stared into s.p.a.ce.

"And anyway," Georg Augustin continued, "if it had gone the way my father wanted, we would have started this interrogation much earlier. Then Martha Stechlin would already be burning at the stake, and the matter would be settled."

Jakob Schreevogl clearly remembered last Monday's council meeting, when blind Augustin had reminded the gentlemen of the great Schongau witch trial seventy years ago and had urged a quick resolution. Five days had gone by since then, and to Schreevogl it seemed like an eternity.

"Be quiet!" Johann Lechner shouted at the son of the blind alderman. "You know very well that we couldn't continue any sooner. If your father were here in your place, we would not have to listen to such gibberish!"

Georg Augustin winced at this rebuke. For a moment it seemed he wanted to say something, but then he reached for the goblet and looked again at the torture instruments.

While the gentlemen were arguing among themselves downstairs, the hangman silently sneaked into the midwife's cell. Under the watchful eyes of two bailiffs he removed the chains from the sobbing midwife and helped her sit up.

"Listen to me, Martha," he whispered. "You must be strong now. I am very close to finding the real culprit, and then you will get out of here, as G.o.d is my witness. But today I shall have to hurt you once more. And this time I cannot give you any potion. They would notice it. Do you understand me?"

He shook her gently. The midwife stopped sobbing and nodded. Jakob Kuisl's face was now very close to hers, so that the bailiffs could not hear him.

"Just make sure you don't confess anything, Martha. If you confess, everything is lost." He took her delicate, ashen face between his huge paws.

"Do you hear me?" he asked once more. "No confession..."

The midwife nodded again. He hugged her closely, then they climbed down the stairs to the torture cellar.

Hearing Martha Stechlin's bare feet on the stairs, the witnesses immediately turned their heads in her direction. Conversation stopped; the show could begin.

Two bailiffs set the accused woman down on a chair in the center of the room and bound her with heavy rope. Her eyes darted fearfully back and forth between the aldermen and finally settled on Jakob Schreevogl. Even from his place behind the table he could see how her rib cage was frantically moving up and down, much too rapidly, just like a young bird in mortal fear.

Johann Lechner began the interrogation. "We were interrupted last time," he said. "I would therefore like to start over from the beginning." He unrolled a parchment scroll in front of him and dipped his quill into the inkwell.

"Point one," he intoned. "Does the delinquent have witches' marks to show that could serve as evidence?"

Berchtholdt the baker licked his lips as the bailiffs pulled the brown penitent's garment over Martha's head.

"In order to avoid any disputes like last time, I shall conduct the examination myself," said Johann Lechner.

He scrutinized the midwife's body inch by inch, checking under her armpits, on her behind and between her thighs. Martha Stechlin kept her eyes closed. Even when the clerk poked his fingers into her genitals she did not weep. Finally, Lechner stopped. "The mark on the shoulder blade seems to be the most suspicious of them. We shall do the test. Hangman, the needle!"

Jakob Kuisl handed him a finger-long needle. Without hesitating the clerk pushed the needle deep into the shoulder blade. Martha Stechlin's scream was so shrill that Jakob Kuisl winced. They were starting and there was nothing he could do about it.

Johann Lechner observed the point of entry with great interest. Finally he smiled, satisfied. "Just as I thought," he said, returning to the desk and sitting down behind his writing implements. He started to write, speaking aloud as he did so: "Defendant's clothes removed. I stuck her with a needle myself and discovered a point from which no blood flowed-"

"But this is no evidence," Jakob Schreevogl objected. "Any child knows that hardly any blood flows across the shoulder bone! And furthermore-"

"Juryman Schreevogl," replied Lechner, interrupting him. "Did you notice that this mark is at the exact same spot where the children had their marks? And that this mark, if not exactly identical, nevertheless looks very similar?"

Jakob Schreevogl shook his head. "A birthmark, nothing more. Never in a lifetime will the Elector's secretary let you call this evidence!"

"Well, we're not done yet after all," said Lechner. "Hangman, the thumbscrews. This time we'll take the other hand."

Martha Stechlin's screams rose from the torture cellar through the narrow windows of the keep into the town. Anyone in the vicinity briefly interrupted their work and crossed themselves or prayed a Hail Mary. Then they continued whatever they had been doing.

The burghers were sure that the witch was receiving her just punishment. She was still obstinate, but soon enough she would spit out her nefarious doings to the honorable aldermen, and then it would finally be over. She would confess her whoring with the devil, and the wild nights with him when together they drank the blood of the innocent little children and branded them with the mark of the devil. She would tell of the orgiastic dances, and how she had kissed the devil on his backside and had done everything the devil asked. She would tell of the other witches who had ridden with her through the air on their brooms, excited by pungent witches' salve that they had smeared on their genitals. Wanton wenches, all of them! And many a good Schongauer was salivating at the mere thought of it. And many a Schongau housewife could well imagine who these other witches were: the neighbor with the evil eye, the beggar woman over in the Munzga.s.se, the maid who was pursuing the good, unsuspecting husband...

At a stand in the market square, Bonifaz Fronwieser was just biting into his warm pastry when Martha Stechlin's screams could be heard coming from the dungeon. Suddenly the meat tasted old and rotten. He threw the rest to a pack of dogs running about and then headed home.

The devil had entered Clara and wouldn't let go of her. The girl threw herself from one side to the other on her bed of brushwood. Cold sweat stood on her brow; her face was waxen like a doll's. Again and again Clara mumbled in her sleep and at times cried out with such force that Sophie had to hold her mouth closed. At that moment the devil seemed to be very close to her again.

"He...he's gotten hold of me. No! Go away! Go away! h.e.l.lish claws...the heart from the body...it hurts so...so much..."

Gently Sophie kept pushing her little friend back on her bed and wiped her hot brow with a wet rag. The fever had not let up. On the contrary, it had become stronger and stronger. Clara was glowing like a little oven. The drink Sophie had given her provided only temporary relief.

Sophie had now watched over her for three nights and four days. Only rarely did she go outside to gather berries and herbs or to pilfer something edible from one of the surrounding farms. Yesterday she had caught a chicken, killed it, and at night made hot soup for Clara. But she was afraid that someone would see the fire and soon went back inside. Her fears were not unfounded. She had heard footsteps in the night. They had pa.s.sed very close to her hiding place and then had left again.

One time she had gone to the raft landing and had asked a boy to tell the alderman Schreevogl that his foster daughter was well. She had considered that a pretty good idea at first. But when that physician showed up in the forest, she cursed herself for it. And all the more when the devil himself appeared, coming as if from nowhere. She dropped quickly into a ditch covered with shrubs, and the man with the bony hand ran past her, toward the physician. Since then she did not know whether the young physician had been killed or had gotten away. She only knew that her pursuers were very close.

Last night she had considered several times whether to go into town and tell the whole story. Perhaps she could tell it to the physician, providing he was still alive, or to the hangman. They both seemed to be on her side. She could tell them everything, and Clara would be rescued. Perhaps they would only clap the midwife in the stocks, or her foster parents would have to pay a fine because their ward had gotten involved with things that were none of her business. Perhaps she would get away with a good spanking and nothing more. Perhaps everything would still be all right.

But that certain premonition of things that she'd always had, and which had made her the leader of the other children, told her that she wouldn't be believed, that things had gone too far already, and there was no way back now.

Next to her, Clara cried out again in her sleep. Sophie bit her lip and tears ran down her face, which was smeared with dirt. She no longer knew where to turn.

Suddenly, she heard shouts from far away, laughter and shouting that could be heard way down here in her hiding place. Sophie kissed Clara on her forehead and moved to a spot with a good view over the forest.

Shadows were flitting among the trees. Dusk had fallen, and at first she could not distinguish the individual figures. Soon, however, she heard dogs barking. Carefully Sophie pushed herself up a few inches higher. Now she recognized the men. They were peasants from Altenstadt, Franz Stra.s.ser, Johannes's foster father, among them. The big dog he was holding on a leash was pulling him toward the hiding place. Quickly Sophie crouched down and crawled to where she could no longer be seen. The voices of the men had a strange echo, as if coming from the far end of a long tunnel.

"Let's stop now, Franz!" one of the men called out. "We have been looking all day, and it will be dark soon. The men are tired and hungry and want to go home. Let's continue looking for this hiding place tomorrow."

"Just wait a moment! Just look here!" shouted Franz Stra.s.ser in reply. "The dog smells something!"

"What do you think he smells?" the other one said, laughing. "The witch? He's smelling Sepp Spanner's b.i.t.c.h. She's in heat. Can't you see how it pulls him off?"

"You dumb a.s.s! This is something else. Look, he's going completely crazy..."

The voices had come closer. Sophie held her breath. Now they were directly above her. The dog started to bark.

"There must be something around here," murmured Stra.s.ser. "Let's search the area around here, and then we'll let it be."

"All right then, just around here. The dog is really acting crazy..."

Sophie heard shouting and hooting. The other peasants were becoming impatient. She heard steps above her, pacing back and forth on the gravel. The dog's panting sounded as if he were about to choke as he obviously was straining on the leash so hard that he was almost strangling himself.

At this moment Clara began to scream again. It was a long scream of fear, as once again she was overcome by the shadows of darkness that were scratching her soft young skin with long fingernails. As soon as Sophie heard the scream she threw herself down quickly next to Clara and closed her mouth with her hand. But it was too late.

"Did you hear that?" asked Stra.s.ser excitedly.

"Hear what? Your dog is panting and barking. I can't hear anything else."

"d.a.m.n cur, be quiet, will you!"

Sophie could hear a kick and then the dog's whimpering. The dog was finally silent.

"Somebody did scream. It was a child."

"Nonsense, the dog was howling. The devil must have taken a s.h.i.t in your ears."

There was laughter. The shouts of the others became fainter.

"Hogwash. I am sure it was a child..."

Under Sophie's strong hands, Clara was tossing back and forth. Sophie was still holding her mouth closed even though she was afraid of suffocating the girl. But Clara could not be allowed to scream. Not now!

Suddenly she could hear a frightened panting above her. "Look, the dog!" called Franz Stra.s.ser. "He's starting to dig! There is something here!"

"True, he's digging...what in the world is he..."

The other man's voice turned to loud laughter.

"A bone, a stupid bone, that's what he's dug up! Ha-ha, that's sure a devil's bone!"

Franz Stra.s.ser began cursing. "You stupid cur, what are you doing? Leave it alone or I'll beat you to death!"

More kicks and whimpering. Then the steps retreated. After a while, nothing could be heard anymore. Nevertheless Sophie's hand remained clamped over Clara's mouth. She held her delicate head as in a vise. The sick girl's face had turned blue by now. Finally Sophie released her, and Clara sucked air into her lungs, gasping, as if she were about to drown. Then her breathing became more regular. The shadows had withdrawn. She drifted into a quiet sleep.

Sophie sat next to her and wept without making a sound. She had almost killed her friend. She was a witch; people were right. G.o.d would punish her for what she had done.

While Martha Stechlin was being tortured, Simon Fronwieser was sitting in the hangman's house making coffee. He was still carrying a handful of the foreign beans in a small pouch on his belt. Now he had ground them up in the executioner's mortar and had set a pot with water on the fire. When the water was at a boil he used a pewter spoon to put a little of the black powder in the pot and stirred. Immediately, a sharp aromatic fragrance spread through the house. Simon held his nose directly over the pot and breathed it in. The scent cleared his head. Finally he poured some of the brew into a mug. As he waited for the grounds to settle he thought about everything that had happened in the past few hours.

After their brief detour to Altenstadt he had walked Jakob Kuisl home, but the hangman did not want to disclose the meaning of his enigmatic words at the end of their visit to Stra.s.ser's. Even when Simon had insisted, he only told him to be available during the night, and that they had come quite a bit closer to the solution. Then the otherwise grim hangman smiled quietly. For the first time in days, Simon had the feeling that Jakob Kuisl was highly pleased with himself.

This bliss was instantly disrupted when they arrived at the hangman's house in the Lech quarter. Two bailiffs were already waiting at the door to tell Jakob Kuisl that the Stechlin woman was again ready to be interrogated.

The hangman's face suddenly turned white.

"So soon?" he murmured, stepping inside and reappearing a short time later with the necessary tools. Then he took Simon briefly aside and whispered in his ear, "Now we can only hope that Martha remains strong. In any case, be at my house tonight at the stroke of midnight."

Then he had trudged off behind the bailiffs, up to the town, with a sack slung over his shoulders filled with thumb-and leg screws, ropes, and sulfur sticks that could be inserted under the fingernails and lit. The hangman walked very slowly, but finally he disappeared beyond the Lech Gate.

When Anna Maria Kuisl stopped to pick up Simon in front of the house a short time later, she found him staring into s.p.a.ce. She poured him a goblet of wine, ran her hand over his hair, and then went to market with the twins to buy bread. Life went on, even if three little boys were dead and a presumably innocent woman was suffering unspeakable torture at this very moment.

Simon went into the hangman's spare chamber carrying the steaming brew and started to leaf aimlessly through some books. But he couldn't really concentrate and the letters danced before his eyes. Almost gratefully he looked around when the squeaking door behind him announced a visitor. Magdalena was standing there, her face tearstained, her hair tangled and unkempt.

"Never, never will I marry the Steingaden hangman," she sobbed. "I'd rather go and drown myself!"

Simon winced. With all the ghastly events of the last few hours he had completely forgotten Magdalena. He slammed the book shut and took her in his arms.

"Your father would never do such a thing, not without your consent," he said, trying to console her.

She pushed him away. "What do you really know about my father!" she cried. "He is the hangman. He tortures and kills, and when he isn't doing that, he sells love potions to old hags and poison to young s.l.u.ts to kill the brats inside them. My father is a monster, a fiend! He'll marry me off for a few guilders and a bottle of brandy without batting an eye! To h.e.l.l with my father!"

Simon held her tightly and looked into her eyes. "You mustn't speak like this about your father! You know that it's not true. Your father is the hangman, but G.o.d knows somebody must do it after all! He is a strong and a wise man. And he loves his daughter!"

Crying she clung to Simon's doublet, shaking her head again and again. "You don't know him. He is a monster, a monster..."

Simon was standing at the window looking vacantly into the herb garden, where the first green shoots were starting to appear in the brown earth. He felt so helpless. Why couldn't they simply be happy together? Why were there always people telling them how to live their lives? His father, Magdalena's father, the whole d.a.m.n town...

"I just talked with him, with your father...about us," he began suddenly.

She stopped sobbing and looked up to him questioningly.

"And what did he say?"

Her eyes were so full of hope that he impulsively decided to lie.

"He...he said that he would think it over. That first he wanted to see if I was good for anything. Once the matter with Martha Stechlin was settled, he would make up his mind. He won't exclude the possibility, that's what he said."

"But...but that's wonderful!"

Magdalena wiped the tears from her face and smiled at him with puffy eyes.

"That means all you have to do is help him get Martha Stechlin out of the keep." With every word her voice became firmer. "Once he sees that you've got something inside your head he will also trust you with his daughter. That has always been what counted for my father. That a person should have something inside his head. And that's what you are going to prove to him now."

Simon nodded but avoided looking directly at her. In the meantime Magdalena had again gotten a hold of herself. She poured a goblet of wine and emptied it in one gulp.

"What did you find out this morning?" she asked, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.