right about, and go off in the other direction. But that was the stupidest thing I could do, for they had sent me to Jericho, and that's just where I don't want to go. I walk on a bit and meet another one, and ask him the way to the Albrechtstor. But he spots at once what's up, and says: 'Go up the stairs, and then keep to the left and then down again, and you'll cut off a large corner!' And I believe he means it kindly and do what he says, and get more and more muddled and altogether lose my bearings. Then I see that it's not my fault, but the rogues', and it strikes me that I have heard that they often play that trick on Court tradesmen who don't tip them, and let them wander about till they sweat. And my fury makes me blind and stupid, and I get to places where there's not a living soul, and don't know where I am and get properly put about. And at last I meet your young Highnesses. Yes, that's how it is with me and my boots!" ended Shoemaker Hinnerke, and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Klaus Heinrich squeezed Ditlinde's hand. His heart beat so loud that he absolutely forgot to hide his left hand. That was it. That was a touch of it, an outline! No doubt about it, that was the sort of thing his "exalted calling" shielded him from, the sort of thing people did when they were in the ordinary, work-a-day frame of mind. The lackeys.... He said nothing, words failed him. "I see that your young Highnesses don't answer," said the shoemaker. And his honest voice was filled with emotion. "I oughtn't to have told you, because it isn't your business to get to know all the wickedness that goes on. But yet I don't know," he said, laid his head on one side and snapped his fingers, "that it can do any harm, that it can do you any harm for the future and later on...." "The lackeys ..." said Klaus Heinrich, and took a plunge ... "are they wicked? I can quite well fancy ..." "Wicked?" said the cobbler. "Good-for-nothings they are. That's the name for them. Do you know what they're good for? They keep the goods back when no tip's forthcoming, keep them back when the tradesman delivers them punctually at the time ordered, and only hand them over days late, so that the tradesman gets blamed, and is considered by the Grand Duke to have failed in his duty and he loses his orders. That's what they do without scruple, and the whole town knows it...." "That's most annoying!" said Klaus Heinrich. He listened, listened. He hardly realized how much shocked he was. "Do they do anything else?" he said. "I'm quite sure they must do other things of the same kind."