I hope you will not think me unmanly when I say that I do not like small confined places, with their stale airs and dank smells. The thought of the many tons of rock above me was oppressive in the extreme. Yet I pressed on, for a knight must do his duty even if his forehead may sweat and his hand may shake.
I came to the end of the tunnel and could see that I was alone. No real dangers were obvious. Then I saw the boy’s knife against the end wall and thought to return it to him, for his father would doubtless beat him for losing so valuable a tool. But as I approached it, my own dagger leaped from my hand of its own accord and fastened itself to the black rock on the end wall of the tunnel. It was not stuck in the rock, mind you, but laying on it as though it were on a table. Only it was laying on a wall! Hanging, with nothing to support it!
Then I was also being drawn to that infernal wall, or at least my chain mail was. And my helmet was pulled from my head, joining my knife on the wall. At that point, the lamp went out, extinguished perhaps by a drop of sweat, or maybe I bumped it. Or maybe whoever or whatever was pulling at my arms and armor saw fit to do his further work in darkness.
I did not cry out, for a true knight never calls out save as a battle cry. My silence had nothing to do with that silly old legend.
In all events, I could see no use to my remaining. I could accomplish nothing, and whatever was attacking me, its surcease was beyond the abilities of a mere knight. Let some wizard handle it, or perhaps Sir Conrad.
I crawled quickly, and perforce backward, out of the tunnel.
FROM THE DIARY OF CONRAD SCHWARTZ
Tadeusz the innkeeper was enthused with the idea of opening another inn in Cracow. Several times in the past, he had asked me for permission to enlarge the present inn, since it was so profitable. I always turned him down because we already had most of the business in Cieszyn. The other inns in town handled little but our overflow. When you are already satisfying your entire market, there is no point in investing in further plant and equipment.
But Cracow had three or four times the population of Cieszyn, and a much larger Pink Dragon Inn there would make sense. To Tadeusz, going to Cracow was like a modern ballerina’s going to the Bolshoi. The big time!
Tadeusz had six sons working for him, most of them adults. Our plan was to leave the oldest boy in charge of the inn in Cieszyn. Tadeusz would take the rest of his family and, later, one half of his staff and go to Cracow.
There they would buy-if necessary build-a suitable building. The guilds in Cracow wouldn’t allow me to handle any construction work, which was just as well. I had my hands full as it was. Tadeusz had definite ideas about what he wanted -something similar to our present facilities only larger and plusher.
After that, I wanted a small inn at Three Walls, and if the Cracow inn was a success, we might expand to Wroclaw and Sandomierz. After that, who knew? Perhaps each of his sons would be an innkeeper.
Tadeusz, his wife, and five of their sons left for Cracow the next morning as I was leaving for Three Walls. But of course they couldn’t keep up with Anna.
A mile from Three Walls, I overtook Boris Novacek and a knight heading in the same direction that I was. For a few days last fall, I had worked for the man, and most of my wealth had been gained while in his employ. He had been treated rather shabbily by Count Lambert, to my profit, and I had always felt guilty about it.
“Boris! I haven’t seen you since last Christmas. Are your ventures profiting you?” I said as the horses walked slowly down the trail.
“As well as can be expected, Sir Conrad. I thought I would visit your new lands and see what wonders you were working there. This is my new companion, Sir Kazimierz, who now has your old job.”
“A pleasure, Sir Kazimierz. I hope you last longer at it than I did.” I turned back to my old boss. “You’ll always be welcome at my table, Boris. But the truth is that there isn’t much to see yet at Three Walls. We’re just getting it built. I’m, pretty proud of the mill and factory I designed at Okoitz, though. You should visit there.”
“I’ve thought on it, but I fear that Count Lambert would decide that I wanted to gift him with all I own as a birthday present, so I have avoided the place.”
“He was pretty rough on you last winter. Nonetheless, he now has a cloth factory and more cloth than he can sell. You once said that you wanted to get into the cloth trade. You might strike a good bargain there.”
“Another thing. I now own a brassworks in Cieszyn. They’ve been selling all the brass they can pour, and are having a hard time getting enough copper. The price of copper in Cieszyn has doubled since last spring.”
“An interesting thought, Sir Conrad. To buy cloth at Okoitz, sell it in Hungary, and return with copper for Cieszyn. I think that would be profitable. The truth is that I have no goods just now but plenty of money.”
“Quite a bit of money, in fact. You remember that German who attacked us on the road just out of Cracow last winter? Not Sir Rheinburg, the other German the day before.”
How could I forget? He was the first man I had ever killed. “Yes.”
“Then you will recall that I mentioned that if he had really purchased my debt from Schweiburger the cloth merchant, and if he had no heirs, I would be forgiven that debt of twenty-two thousand pence.”
“Well, that very thing has come to pass, and I am now richer because of it. I never had to pay the debt and I even recovered my amber from Schweiburger. ”
“You mean that man was an honest creditor?”
“A creditor, yes. Honest? Do honest men pull knives on others on the highway? He tried to kill me, and then you as well. Anyway, my debt was not in arrears at the time. He had no fight to accost us like that.”
“Still, it troubles me.”
“Well, it shouldn’t. You did no wrong, and now there is a bit of gold for you with which to salve your conscience.”
“What do you mean, Boris?”
“I mean that I said at the time that if he really had a deed of transfer, you would get half of my profits. I’ve never gone back on my word yet, and I won’t start now. Eleven thousand pence in those sacks is for you.”
“You have traveled three days to pay me a huge sum of money that I would never have known about if you hadn’t told me?”
“Yes, Sir Conrad. I suppose that’s a true statement.”
“I’ve never heard of -such honesty. Especially after Count Lambert took the much larger booty we won from Sir Rheinburg and gave most of it to me, even though you actually found the treasure in Rheinburg’s camp. I was so concerned about that baby that I stepped fight over the treasure chest without noticing it. I hate to speak ill of my liege lord, but I’ve always thought that you were robbed.”
“I wasn’t pleased with Count Lambert either. But his actions as regards the second booty have nothing to do with my word as regards the first.”
“Boris, you still amaze me. But-there’s no way that I can accept that money. It simply wouldn’t be fair. if Count Lambert hears about the business, well, it was all a legal matter in Cracow, and so is none of his business. If he doesn’t hear about it, so much the better.”
“Now it is my turn to be amazed, Sir Conrad. No other knight in Christendom would have forgiven me this debt.”
“Let’s just say that we’re two honest crazy people who like each other.”
“Done. But tell me, is there something that you need? Something that I can do for you?”
“You know, maybe there is. You travel all over eastern Europe. You meet a lot of different people. I want to hire a special kind of a man.”
“The truth is that I know very little about practical chemistry. I know quite a bit about theoretical chemistry, but all of it was using packaged and bottled chemicals that were bought from a supply house. Such places aren’t available in this land, and I wouldn’t know bauxite from phosphate rock. But there must be somebody who knows how to take rocks and sulfur and what not and make acids and bases and salts out of them. I think you would call such a man an alchemist.”