Thirteen years.
THE MAGISTRATE
Officer, you went to earth with him?
THE FIRST
Yes, sir.
THE MAGISTRATE
Stephan Kadar, after thirteen years of purification by fire you returned to earth to give proof that your soul had been burned clean. What good deed did you perform?
THE POORLY DRESSED MAN
When I came to the village and looked in the window of our cottage I saw my poor little orphans sleeping peacefully. But it was raining and the rain beat into the room through a hole in the roof. So I went and fixed the roof so it wouldn’t rain in any more. My hammering woke them up and they were afraid. But their mother came in to them and comforted them. She said to them: “Don’t cry! It’s your poor, dear father hammering up there. He’s come back from the other world to fix the roof for us.”
THE MAGISTRATE