An Elegant Solution(71)

When Daniel, later, on his black horse, rode me down in the street looking for me, he was also concerned with storms.

“It’s the Election,” he said. “The wind is rising! They’re talking. They’ve begun deciding.”

“Deciding what?”

“Who’ll be on the committees, who the committees will nominate, which nominee will be chosen.”

“I’ll believe the first,” I said. “Not the other two.”

“I’ve been calling on Chairs today. I’ve called on Philosophy, on Law, on Botany, and on Greek.” He clenched his fist. “Even on Logic,” which required a pause. “And on the Dean. Brutus has them all in his hand. He means to steal the Election.”

“It’s meant that it can’t be,” I said.

“He means that it will be.

“What did the Chairs say?”

“Nothing.”

“Of course! What would they say? There isn’t anything to say.”

“They know everything,” Daniel said. “They won’t say because they’re told to not. They won’t say who they want for candidates or when they’ll have the Election, or anything else.”

“Maybe they haven’t decided yet.”

“They haven’t been told yet.”

“But you said they already know everything! And why would they tell you, anyway, Daniel?”

“I’m the true candidate!”

“There might be other candidates. They need to have three, anyway,” I said. “And you’ve spoken to Logic? I don’t think Gottlieb will be told.”

“He’ll be told and he’ll do as he’s told.”

“Or even more, Desiderius.”

“Desiderius? Him?” Daniel laughed. “Poor little Leonhard. Desiderius even more than Gottlieb. Desiderius most of all. Jankovsky was cleared from the Greek Chair just for him.”

“But Jankovsky died of a chill.”

“Of the plague, just as Huldrych did.”

“But you said Huldrych died of old age!”

Daniel shook his head. “I’ll have the Common Room think that. But he was cleared from the Chair, just as Jankovsky was. It doesn’t matter how he died, just that Desiderius had the Chair cleared for him.”

“In that you’re wrong.”

“How is it that he was Brutus’s candidate? And it’s that candidate who always wins.”

“But he was nominated by Vanitas.”

“But he was told who to nominate,” Daniel said. “Vanitas put the name to the committee, but only because he’d been given it. I saw the letter that came to my house, that had that name in it, and I saw that letter again in Brutus’s hand as he went to call on Vanitas.”

“You saw the letter?” I said. “What did it say?”

“I didn’t read it. I only saw it in its envelope.”

“Then you don’t know what it said!”

“I know what it said.”

“Without reading it? Where was the letter from? Who was it from?”

“Now, that’s a nice one. It was a name I didn’t know at the time, but I know it now, and you, also. It came from Strasbourg.”

“From Caiaphas?”

“Magistrate Caiaphas.”

“His name was on the envelope?”

“No, no, no! But I asked the coachman when he brought it.”

“Knipper told you?”

“He didn’t, but he was shaking in his boots when he came to the house to deliver it. Who else would it have been from?”

I finally laughed. It was all like an equation that cancelled to nothing. “So a letter came, but you don’t know who it was from, what it said, or if it was anything to do with the Election. You don’t know if your father ever talked with Vanitas about the Election. You don’t know anything! Your logic’s backward. And you stood for the Logic Chair? It’s well you didn’t get it.”

“And should have had it. And I know better what was in that letter than if I’d been told.”

“Well, I’ll tell you this: Your father did suggest Master Desiderius to Master Vanitas as a candidate.”

“What? You knew?”

“I know it because I asked Vanitas. It’s a better method than your guessing and wrong-way logic. And Daniel, I still haven’t found a man or woman in Basel who’ll say how Master Jacob died, or just when. Only that it was the same day your family arrived.”

He shrugged. “Leave it covered, Leonhard. Leave it.”

“Daniel! You’re maddening!”

“I don’t care. There’s another Chair now, Physics, and I don’t care about Mathematics now.”