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Peter the Priest, a fiction by Maurus Jokai |
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Chapter 15. The Grave Of Gold |
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_ CHAPTER XV. THE GRAVE OF GOLD Grazian Likovay's gouty leg really was a good weather-prophet; they had hardly reached the middle of the Waag when the ice crowded around them, and the boat was held firm amid the blocks. One of the crew, at the peril of his life, had to cross the ice cakes to the shore, arouse the people of the castle, and return to the boat with a long rope. By clinging to this rope, Grazian and the crew, with the casks of gold, were brought to shore. Here the lord of the castle was met by Master Mathias with a troica on runners. The casks were put in, and Lord Grazian seated himself on the driver's seat, with Master Mathias beside him to guide the three horses. "Knock the top out of one of the casks, my good friend, and pay the whole household their wages for a year. The treasurer, legal adviser, and general manager have been paid already and their goods packed up; within an hour every living thing will be gone from here. Every one I find staying behind will be shot down; you alone may stay with me." "I beg your pardon for contradicting you," said Master Mathias, "but everybody knows already how much gold we brought back from Madocsany, and there is cause to fear that we shall be robbed if we stay alone." "Don't worry. We'll put the whole troica into the church for the night, and nobody can force his way in there. As soon as the moon rises, we'll make ready the horses, take our seats in the carriage, and drive out into the wide world toward Galicia. We have money enough, and can live there like lords." "But you know one cannot live by gold and silver alone; we must have something to eat." "That has all been prepared for. In the agent's house, we shall get our evening meal, and provisions for the journey; here's the key. There you'll find some choice Tokay; we will carouse on that to-day and take what is left with us. Now get the sledge into the church." This was done. The horses were put into the sacristy, because from their unguarded stable they could be easily driven away. One cask of gold was left outside, and with this Master Mathias paid the whole retinue a year's wages; then showed them all outside the gate and locked it behind them. After that nobody else could get into the castle, for the keys were already at Madocsany. The cask was still not entirely empty. "What shall I do with the rest?" asked Master Mathias. "Put the money in your pockets, you may need it on your way." Master Mathias did not wait to be told twice. "No, don't kiss my hand, faithful fellow, I do not deserve it. But listen. You are master of a thousand arts, and so I suppose you understand masonry; bring your tools here into the church." Master Mathias obeyed. He brought the mortar, the trowel, and the smoothing board. "Now pick up your tools and follow me." Grazian led Master Mathias through the opening of the altar frame, (the picture had been cast aside) into the secret passage-way; then to the heavy iron door, which when opened from outside set the church bells ringing. This door opened into the long passage-way, and at its very beginning were two side passages. In front of one of these side passages had been unloaded a pile of bricks. Lord Grazian threw a light into the dark space. "See!" "What a frightful place," said Master Mathias, with his teeth chattering. "What kind of women are those?" "Bones of women, as you see." "How did they get here?" "They know best how they got here, but how to get away from here was what they did not know. And yet they tried in every way, as you see. Here they tried to break through the wall; with knives they pulled out two and three rows of bricks, and then grew weary of the work and gave it up. The wall is six feet through here." "Yes, fully." "Now then, do you know what these bricks here are for? You are to wall up the opening of this other space." "I can do that easily." "But first swear to me as a good Lutheran, on the Holy Gospels, that you will never in this life tell one word of what you have seen and heard in this place to any living soul." With that he drew from his pocket a small Bible, and required Master Mathias to put his hand on the Bible and repeat the oath after him. "Now to your work." Out of the depths of the recess there sounded forth a sorrowful song: "De profundis ad te clamavi, Domine----" "Who is that?" whispered Master Mathias with a shudder. "Take your torch and look at him." Master Mathias threw the light of the torch into the dark space. Then he saw Father Peter in his monk's cowl, bound, and in an upright position. All around him were heaped up gold and silver and jewels that held him fixed. His cowl was drawn down over his face, so that it could not be seen. "Father Peter!" whispered Master Mathias, turning to Lord Grazian. "The Devil is in you that you guessed it! Yes, it really is Father Peter." "Who brought him here?" "I did, with my crooked leg, and my crushed hand." "So then he has not been killed." "You heard him sing." "And you wish me to wall him in?" "Not wholly. Leave a hole in the wall, about the size of the head of a small cask, so that he shall not suffocate." "And who shall bring him food when we leave this country?" "A raven of the Prophet Elias. Anything that is in the Bible is true: if it happened once that a raven brought bread to a hungry prophet, it can happen twice. Now to your work. You have begun this work, and you must finish it. Do it good-naturedly, my faithful friend, or else I'll shoot you in the head and then this one after you." Master Mathias was all in a cold perspiration, and went to work. "While you are doing this, I will take a little walk in this underground paradise." And Lord Grazian took his lantern on his maimed right arm and limped off through the dark, winding underground passage, counting his steps as he went. When he had counted five hundred and forty steps, he found himself in front of that cavern where the great cask stood, all covered over with green. He raised the cover; under this was a thick layer of wax that he bored through with his knife. The cask contained what he had supposed at the first glance--gunpowder. He gathered up a little of the dust and scattered it over his torch, it blazed up; the gunpowder had been kept dry through these centuries under its layer of wax. Then he unbuttoned his coat, and brought out a long cotton fuse which he had wound around his waist a number of times. With his left hand and his teeth, he fastened this fuse to this match hanging at the bunghole of the cask; then he walked back, drawing the fuse after him--it was just five hundred and forty yards long. When he came to the end, he lighted the fuse, and noted by his watch how long it took to burn one yard--just one minute. How many hours are there in five hundred and forty minutes? That was too much for his head; Master Mathias would tell him. When he returned, the wall was done, and Master Mathias was busy smoothing it off around the open space. It was strange that Grazian had not thought of this--what if Father Peter so walled up had made an arrangement with Master Mathias, during Grazian's absence, and by entreaties, threats and promises, persuaded him to make known his fate; or had he thought of this? Was that the purpose of the fuse, or was it for something quite different? "Are you through, my good friend? Tell me how many times sixty goes in five hundred and forty?" "Six times nine make fifty-four, so nine times." "Quite right. Six times nine makes fifty-four. The table of ones was more than I could ever get. Yes, nine times--that is quite enough. Now I too shall be ready soon. Do you go to the agent's house, make a good fire on the hearth, spread the table, and prepare our supper. I will stay here a little longer to take leave of my son." When the major-domo had gone, Grazian went back into the church. He lifted the casks of money from the carriage and rolled them along the passage-way to the space just walled in. When they were all piled up together, he stuck his hand in the opening: "Greetings, my beloved son-in-law, Father Peter; how do you fare on your wedding day? You have won a beautiful bride, I must acknowledge. You shall not say you led hence my only daughter with only what she had on her back. I will be a generous father and give her her inheritance from both father and mother. Was ever father-in-law so good as I?" Then he opened one of the casks and laid it with his left hand on his wounded right arm. He smothered the pain that this caused him and shook the silver shower of dollars down into the cavern; he did the same with all the casks that contained silver money. "This was your portion from her mother; now comes the dowry from her father." And he brought forth the casks full of gold, and poured their costly contents over the head of his son-in-law. The heaps of money came up to the victim's shoulders, only his head was still free. "Miserere, mei Domine----" resounded from the lips of the man buried alive in gold. "Ha, ha," laughed Lord Grazian, "so you want a song. Shall I sing you one? How do you like this: 'Gemitus mortis,--dolores inferni--circumdederunt me. Perhaps you like this better:--'Yesterday I went to town and heard the matins read. Now the priest who read the matins has become my lover'--You don't want any more of that, then here's one: 'In paradisum ne ducant te angeli--Kyrie eleison'--ha ha ha!" Then he seized his torch and hobbled off through the passage, continuing to mix popular songs with litany. That diabolical laughter was the last sound of the night in this subterranean cavern. _ |
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