“I know that it lieth in the earth beneath a great stone. It is safe. Have no fears for it.” Hans Peter balanced himself first on one bare foot, and then on the other, and in his face was such a stupid look that Karl Weisel said:
“Look at the fool! He would shield the school-master, to whom he shows a dog’s devotion.”
“Dost thou really know where the Bible is, Hans Peter?” asked Walda, laying her hand upon the simple one’s shoulder.
“I have not said I knew. I said I knew I could get it,” answered the fool.
“Nay, dissemble not,” pleaded Walda. “I know now it was thou that didst hide the Bible from the elders.”
The boy looked down to the floor.
“Yea, I did take the Bible so that the stranger in Zanah could not buy it with his silver. It was for thy sake and for Gerson Brandt’s that I took it.”
“Listen not to the fool,” said Karl Weisel. “I tell thee he would shield Gerson Brandt.”
“There is a likelihood of truth in his words,” declared the Herr Doktor. Then, in a thundering tone, he commanded: “Bring the Bible to me.”
“It may not be easily found,” Hans Peter answered, still keeping his eyes on the floor.