Picking up a random book he walked out of his rooms, up a flight of stairs and down the long central corridor of the main part of the building that housed the library. Through the windows on his right he could see the main garden, where he had grown his peas for many years, and the greenhouse that the Abbot had built for him.

He passed under the steeple that held the clock, and turned left into the short corridor that led to the Prelate's quarters and the guest rooms. It was only a few steps to a right hand turn which, on this floor, led directly to Abbot Napp's rooms. Even after this time, a faint odor of smoke still hung in the air.

As he turned into the main corridor that led the full length of this wing, he was stopped by a soldier who was guarding this whole section. Since the incident, Reishach had insisted on posting guards to protect his new rooms, but Napp had also insisted that he, and his monks, should be free to come and go as they wanted. This had been agreed, but the soldier still looked at Mendel suspiciously as the monk gestured with the book he was carrying and dived as quickly as he could into the Abbot's outer office.

Sweating more than ever, Brother Gregory first checked to make sure he was alone and that the Abbot was out and about his duties. Finding the place deserted, he moved into the main office area and, leaving wet finger prints everywhere, started searching the drawers of a table and a desk. It did not take him long to find what he was seeking, and he removed a single sheet of long, cream, unlined paper from the Abbots official stocks.

It was a joke among the monks that Mendel used the Abbot's paper to carry out his calculations and writing, but this was the first time he had stolen any directly from the Abbot's study. Massive guilt almost made it impossible for him to continue, but he was eventually able to fold the unusually long piece of paper into sections and hide it inside the book before leaving.

He was sure that the soldier guarding the corridor could see through the covers of the book and the stolen paper burned a hole in his hand as he retraced his steps back to his room, where he collapsed onto his bed once more. This time the period of recovery took longer.

He was still in bed when Brother Victor brought him a bowl of soup and a glass of strong, dark coffee for his lunch. "Feeling any better?" the monastery cook wanted to know, and was surprised when Brother Gregory pulled himself out of bed and made a strange request.

The cook wrinkled his brow. "Yes, I have one of those I could lend you for a couple of days, but why do you want it?" asked Brother Victor, when the nature of the request had been clarified.

"I have an important experiment I must do this afternoon," Brother Gregory told him, "and I don't want it to get out of hand or cause any damage." Then he went on to explain that the tribunal to examine Brother Matthew was meeting tomorrow afternoon in the library here at the monastery, and that he wanted to give the members of the tribunal an important demonstration that he hoped would convince them of Brother Matthew's innocence.

"But, is he?" asked Brother Victor not unkindly. Like all the monks he was unaware of recent developments and still considered Brother Matthew the most likely suspect.

"Oh yes, I'm sure of it. If there was time I think I could prove scientifically that Brother Matthew had nothing to do with burning those lists, or breaking the beaker. But trying to explain difficult principles of optics to people like the Bishop or Darmstaedter is almost impossible. Some people seem to have problems understanding even the simplest principles of logic and science!"

At this, Brother Victor could not help smiling. There were not many people like Brother Gregory around in the world; himself included. Mathematics, and what you could prove using mysterious numbers and mathematical formulae, were a puzzling fog to Brother Victor and he secretly admired those who, like Mendel, could derive great truths from abstract principles. But he couldn't do it himself, and he knew that the tribunal tomorrow would have a hard time understanding anything more complicated than Klacel's obvious guilt.

"So I will try and show them instead of teaching them," Mendel said sipping his soup. "Brother Matthew thinks it will work, but --" his voice trailed off, indicating how little faith he still had in Klacel's plans.

"Best of luck. I hope it works. I like Brother Matthew, but he has some strange ideas and very strange principles," said Brother Victor, setting off back to the kitchens and filling Brother Gregory's order.