“You’ll both be gone, then,” Gottlieb said, thoughtfully. “So that’s done.”
“You’ll both be gone,” Little Johann said.
“Come after us,” Daniel said to him. “In a few years we’ll be ready for you.”
“I will be pleased,” the final voice said, which was Master Johann, “that you both have a position in Saint Petersburg. And now I wish to speak with Mistress Dorothea, so please leave us.”
We all stood and moved to the door. I let the others ahead, and as I was about to follow them, Master Johann said, “Stay, Leonhard.”
The door closed, and just the parents and I were in the room. The Mistress sat, beside her husband. “Leonhard,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We wish to discuss what you’ve done.” She was as stern as her husband.
“I’m not very sure what I’ve done.”
“Magistrate Caiaphas,” Master Johann said, “has worked toward a purpose for many years and this is a setback to him.”
“I know that,” I said.
“I’ve worked with him.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, with a swallow. “I’ve known that, also.”
“Then, was it your object to thwart his purpose? Our purpose?”
“Yes. It was, sir.”
His only reaction was a slight tightening of his mouth, and an even slighter rise of his brow.
I waited as he stared at me, or through me to somewhere else. Then Mistress Dorothea said, “We considered that you might choose to do that.”
“I felt it was my only choice.”
“Describe your actions of the last two days,” Master Johann said.
Now, the examination began. I knew the answers to the questions he’d ask, but I doubted they would be accepted.
I frankly told them of entering their house and taking the key, and of then taking the stones from their cellar, and of choosing three stones to replace in the casket. I was brief. The chase through the city and river seemed irrelevant and I didn’t mention it, nor Little Johann’s help. But I did finish by telling of my last act on the bridge, and that the stones and key were lost to the Rhine.
He accepted that. “Did you examine the stones before you chose the three?” he asked.
“No, sir. I feared that if I did, it would be too difficult for me to not change the chances in my favor. And I was reluctant to break the seals. So I only chose those three, which I hoped were the original three. And they were the originals, or at least the same combination.”
“Tell us,” Mistress Dorothea said, “about giving Daniel the letter from Russia.”
I told them. I described handing it him, but also the conversation we then had, with Caiaphas as witness, and the result of that.
“And tell us,” Master Johann said, “of your other conversations with Magistrate Caiaphas.”
So I did that, as well. I gave the summary of my Saturday night meeting, and also the hints from my other conversations that he had an interest in me.
“Now, tell us what you know of Magistrate Caiaphas’s designs.”
“I believe that he was trying to accomplish the annexation by France of Basel.”
“Yes, that has been his plan. He is a Magistrate of France and is among those who have that assignment. Do you believe that you’ve halted him?”
“No, sir. But . . . that wasn’t my objective.”
“You said before that it was.”
I paused and took a breath to order my thoughts. “It was my objective to thwart Magistrate Caiaphas. And though I would dread annexation of Basel by an outside power, that was not why. I had a profound reason for my opposition to him.”
Master Johann frowned, and I saw that for the first time in our conversation he’d received a truly unexpected answer. “What reason?”
I knew the next few words I would speak would the hardest of all I ever had with him. I hesitated and drew all my strength together.
“Master Johann,” I said. “And Mistress Dorothea. Magistrate Caiaphas’s purpose was for France, but his method was to have control of the University, and his tool was to use divisions and jealousies to force ambitious men to seek his own help to achieve their positions.”
“Speak more plainly,” Mistress Dorothea said.
“Master Daniel turned to Magistrate Caiaphas for the Chair when he knew he could not ask your help.” I said this to Master Johann. “The Magistrate has worked to increase the hostility in your family so that he could exploit it. That seemed to me the greater danger. That was why I was opposed to him, more than any other reason.”
Master Johann only frowned, and Mistress Dorothea said nothing. I waited for them and couldn’t imagine what either would say. So, perhaps, there was nothing to say.