Taking two of his cigars and stopping off in Brother Victor's cellar for a couple of bottles of red wine, he made his way to the storage room where Brother Matthew was being held. He gave one bottle of wine to the two guards, who, as a result, didn't object to him waking up the prisoner at this unusual hour.

"Diabolical!" exclaimed his friend after he had recovered from the double shock of the late night visit and the detailed explanation Mendel had given him about his hypothesis. "You are a genius! I've always said it. Such cunning, such planning, you have to admire him. So, all we have to do is tell Abbot Napp in the morning and I'll be a free man!"

"Not so fast," said Brother Gregory, shaking his head. "This is only my way of explaining all the facts, taking into account, of course, the assumption you are innocent. Others on the tribunal may not take that position. In fact I would go as far as to say that the Bishop, the Untercommandant and the Oberstleutnant are all convinced you are guilty. When the Abbot tried to tell his nephew about the glass this afternoon, Reishach became quite upset and accused his uncle of trying to get you off by confusing the situation. So they are unlikely to listen to any other guesses while they think the real criminal is before them."

"Silent leges inter arma," said Klacel, then translated from the Latin. "In time of war the laws are silent. So what must we do? You now know I'm innocent and you now know who is guilty, how can we prove it?"

Brother Gregory shook his head, "That's why I came to see you. Can't you think of a way? We only have a day and a half. The tribunal meets on Tuesday afternoon, if we wait much longer it will be too late."

It was not until he had almost finished the bottle of wine, and the cigars were half smoked that Brother Matthew finally smiled, and his face took on the rounded, impish creases of devilment that the inhabitants of the monastery knew so well. "Cuisvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare," he said finishing the wine in his glass and reaching for what was left in the bottle.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," Mendel said, he was tired, exhausted and in no mood for his friend's gamesmanship in languages, which Mendel always lost - not being a good linguist.

"Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error," Klacel translated. "I don't think our saboteur is a fool, but, he can be made to err. I have an idea how we can prove my innocence to the tribunal on Tuesday, but we need three things; a piece of information, Brother Joseph is good with technical things, he can go to the telegraph tomorrow and send some messages, we also need some special paper, you will have to raid our Abbot's secret store for that, and - here is the hard part - how good an actor are you?"

He then went on to explain his plan in more detail, and even Brother Gregory had to gasp. "But will it work?" he said when he had heard it all. "Wouldn't it be better to present all the facts to Abbot Napp tomorrow - or today, look at the time - and get him to have a search instituted at once?"

It was Brother Matthew's turn to shake his head. "You forget, the Staatpolizei have informers everywhere. The moment you tell Napp what we know, the whole world will know an hour later - or worse. The criminal will have time to hide the crucial piece of evidence and we will never be able to prove anything. I know there are risks in my plan, but I'm willing to take them. All or nothing. What have I got to lose?"

Brother Gregory was far from convinced, but, as he could think of nothing better, he agreed to give it a try. "You might at least have left me some of the wine," he said, getting to his tired feet and picking up the empty bottle. His friend laughed and for the first time in many days, the laugh did not have a hollow ring to it.

"If this works, I'll buy you a case of wine," Brother Matthew said as Mendel staggered from the room and up to his bed. He hoped he would be able to collect on that offer.