Chapter the Third

Sitting Round the Table



Four men sat around the scrubbed pine kitchen table. Each one stared at the meticulously clean wooden surface and none looked into the eyes of another. Of the three monks, it was Brother Victor, the hospitallier, who did most of the talking.
"This means the end of the Freikinder program," he said despondently, "Abbot Napp almost admitted as much while we were on our way to the railway station. He said that the Board of Trustees would never change its vote after such an incident - even if they felt it had been a wrong decision in the first place."
Thomas Makyatta, who had arrived in the Monastery kitchen later than the other three, asked for clarification, "What happened?" he asked, not having heard the beginning of Brother Victor's story.
Brother Matthew, who was running his finger along a cleaver mark in the table, answered, "We are not exactly sure," he told the schoolteacher, "but it appears that the Tomin boys took the book containing the Mozart score when they left school today, and they are suspected of trying to steal it."
"Nonsense," moaned Brother Gregory, his head in his hands. The last couple of hours had been a total nightmare, and he was still trying to put together the pieces.
"You mean that Jiri Tomin took that book we borrowed from the library?" Makyatta asked incredulously.
"He has been accused of that," Brother Matthew said darkly.
"But ... who, why?" was all Makyatta could think to say. The accusation made no sense.

So Brother Victor started his story again. "Abbot Napp was on his way to the bi-annual meeting of the committee of the Agricultural Society. The Lord's Diet, of which Abbot Napp is a long standing member, is convening tomorrow, and he wanted to caucus with some of the other members from Olomouc and Prerov before the formal sessions, so he was leaving by train this afternoon."
Abbot Napp, never still, was a prominent member of the Lord's Diet and had made strenuous efforts over the years to rationalize their agricultural policy. He never missed a formal meeting of the Diet, and usually spent several days before the main sessions meeting with other members from other districts, and lobbying them to his side on matters of public policy; ever the consummate politician, he usually got his way.

"After Chapter he came and asked me to go with him to St Thomas' this afternoon. We planned to meet with Monsignor Schrattenbach on Klostergeschaft, - 'Monastery business' - before the Abbot got on his train for Olomouc. It was during this meeting that all hell broke loose."
Brother Victor paused to refill his glass with ledova kava, the cold weak black coffee he drank constantly, and went on, "Brother Timothy burst into the Monsignor's office dragging the Tomin boys and the school porter. He was very upset and asked to speak with the Bishop's secretary alone, but Schrattenbach looked angry at the interruption and made him tell his story in front of us."

"Brother Timothy said that he had been just about to leave the school after meeting with Dr Auspitz when he saw these two boys put the valuable book into their bag and run out of the door. He was suspicious so he went after them, and with the help of the porter caught up to them on the corner of Janska and Minoritska streets, just by the Loreto Chapel. He demanded to look inside their sack, and found a leg of pork and the Schrattenbach book from our library."

"He claimed that he was totally surprised that the boys had such a valuable book, and that they could not account as to how it had got into their sack, so he decided to bring them to St Thomas' and clear up the matter."
Klacel snorted, "I'll bet!"
But Brother Victor continued, "Of course Monsignor Schrattenbach had no idea what was going on, and it took a few moments for Brother Timothy to fill him in. But no one in the room knew how the book had got to the school in the first place."
Mendel groaned. "It is all my fault. If only I hadn't left the book unattended this would not have happened." He had been going over in his mind when he had last seen the book ever since the storm had broken at the school earlier that day.