“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. “Dare not try to put me off,” thundered Adolph Schneider, shaking his cane at the simple one. “Without more ado, fetch it to me.” All this time Gerson Brandt had been standing silent and sad. He now waited expectantly for the last answer. He knew that his precious book was, indeed, in jeopardy. Hans Peter gently took Walda’s hand from his shoulder, and, backing to the door, said, rolling his great head from side to side: “The fool hath no memory. If he would know the thing that happened yesterday he must mark upon a gourd words that will bring back to his poor mind what is past.” “Let him not make terms; let him not trade upon his folly,” interposed Karl Weisel. “Thou hast not forgotten where the Bible is hidden?” inquired Walda, very gently. “I did bury the gourd that told me where the Bible is, and upon another gourd I marked where that gourd was hidden.” “Quick! We care not about thy lunatic pastimes. Bring the Bible!” shouted the Herr Doktor, overcome with impatience. “And the second gourd I carried in my pocket until one day, when I was marking on it something the stranger had told me, the Herr Doktor struck it out of my hand with his cane and put his heel upon it. The Bible is safe, but it cannot be found without long search.” When the simple one had made his tantalizing speech, the school-master spoke in a quiet tone: “Hans Peter, thou knowest that the precious book may be spoiled in the ground. Try to think where it is.” “Nay, I tell thee it is safe, for it is wrapped in the oil-skin in which thou didst keep it, and it is nailed in a great box that is covered with another box. I did work upon the boxes a large part of the night before I buried the Bible.” “The village fool is not to be believed,” said Karl Weisel, “but he ought to be locked up until he can be made to confess that what he is telling is all a lie.”