“Nay—the most curious part is yet to come. My mother and I climbed into the wagon where a goodly supply of food had been stored, while my father, moving swiftly, wielded a forked stick with such effect, in one corner of the shed, that he soon unearthed a pile of vegetables which had been covered over with tree branches and leaves in order to preserve them. I thought at the time that he was about to put some of them into our wagon for food, but to my surprise he chose only one.” “And that——” “A pumpkin.” “A _pumpkin_! But why——” “I know no more about it than you. When everything else in our wagon had been eaten, father refused to give it up—this was ten days later, of course, when we were on the last stages of our journey; and once, indeed this very morning, a man who had evidently pursued us from the Ukraine offered my father the pumpkin’s weight in gold in exchange for it—but my father refused.” “Did you learn whose face your mother saw in the thatch?” “That I did not, but what came later proved that my father had acted wisely in leaving our house secretly and in a hurry. For when we stopped in a village a few days later to rest our horses, we saw a neighbor who had traveled from our part of the country on horseback. He had passed our place on the day after we left. Every building had been burned to the ground, he told us, and the land itself looked as if a battle had raged there; the wheat was down and the crops were burnt, and holes had been dug everywhere as if the invaders had hunted for hidden treasure.” “Your father has the pumpkin now?” “It is safe in his possession—though why he refused its weight in gold I cannot see. But I think he would not be pleased that I have told all this about it, although I know that the secret is safe with you. Now tell me something of yourself. This man whom you called uncle—is he your father’s brother?” “That he is. My mother and father died in the plague that spread through the town when I was small. He is a Master of Arts in the university and a very great scholar,” she added proudly. “His name is Nicholas Kreutz and among those most famed in the university in alchemy he is indeed the greatest. He is not a servant of the Church, though a good Christian, and he seeks, as do many others, the secrets of his craft.” The scholar-alchemist appeared suddenly in the doorway and smiled at them. “I have just ascertained,” he said, seating himself at the table, “that if it pleases your father there is a haven for you all here in this very house. There is not much to pay, and a shelter, however lowly, is better than the sky when night falls. Your father might sell his pair of horses—horses bring a good price at present, I hear—and he could live here until some suitable employment appears. Unless,” he added, “the place is too humble——”