"As soon as I have received my father's blessing," replied Henry, unctuously, from which Barbara Pirka gathered that the clergyman was the master's son.
The heavy doors had no sooner closed behind the two women than Christian Catsrider said to his son:
"Follow me!"
With that he took out of his side pocket a key with a double ward, and unlocked therewith a secret door, discovering a spiral staircase which led up to a tower.
Henry knew from experience that the old man kept his treasures in this tower. That his father should lead him thither seemed therefore an omen of good.
"Take the lamp and go on before."
Henry took the lamp and led the way up the staircase whilst the old man closed the iron door behind them.
After ascending twelve steps, they came to a large round room. Heaped up all round lay, not the treasures of the master, but all the instruments of his trade which were employed in the torturings and executions of those times, with a description of which we will not harrow the readers of this sufficiently sad story. Nowadays these instruments are only to be found in museums; men have discovered other ways of ameliorating their fellow-creatures.
Henry looked around him with horror at this frightful arsenal. He could not imagine what the old man had to say to him in such a place.
The master did not leave him very long in doubt. On the wall hung an enormous two-edged sword in a sheath of black leather. This sword the old man took down, and drew from its red velvet-lined sheath the broad blade, which was concave at both edges from much grinding, and of a mirror-like brightness; then, seizing the weapon with both hands, he said to his son in a cold, calm voice: