"You never fail to amaze me, Brother Gregory. How did you do it? Everyone at the Bishop's Palace was convinced that Klacel here had finally stepped over the line, gone too far in promoting his idiotic causes, and was in such deep trouble at last that even the good Abbot could not get him off this time," said the Vicar General, waving everyone into Napp's best and most comfortable seats.

Never one to be a bad host, the Abbot gave each of them a wine glass and poured generous measures of plum brandy. Mendel and Klacel helped themselves to cigars, and the group settled down to talk. It was a curiously relaxed gathering with a strange mix of old enemies, and older friends, but there was a definite lack of hostility.

It had not been easy to convince Darmstaedter of Brother Matthew's innocence and Hauptmann Steefel's guilt, even after Brother Gregory had repeated his findings and even tried to tell them of some of his scientific evidence. But he was eventually worn down, and when Reishach stated categorically that he was not going to prosecute Klacel and was going to take action against his adjutant, Darmstaedter threw up his hands in disgust, gathered his underlings and stormed off in his carriage.

Although none of them knew it, the Untercommandant spent the next few days making many additions to the secret dossiers in the Staatpolizei archives, and some of these entries would come back to haunt the monastery in a few years time. He also edited the reports of Alois Pech and added them to a dispatch he was preparing for his superiors in Vienna. Darmstaedter was not a man to give up lightly.

In the Abbot's rooms the brandy and cigars were working their magic, but it was the Abbot that asked the first question. "Monsignor, I could not help noticing that you were not surprised by the events of today, why was that? Even though I knew Brother Matthew had not started the fire, how did you?"

At this the Monsignor smiled and shook his head. "You credit me with too much foresight," he said, sipping his brandy. "I had no idea that Klacel was innocent, or that Steefel was guilty, but I do know this monastery and the kind of establishment you run Napp." At which the Abbot tried to look shocked. "However, it was when I learned of Brother Gregory's investigations I became suspicious. We all know of his reputation as a scientist, and I was sure that if anyone could wriggle his friend off this hook, it was Mendel."

Brother Gregory looked suitably embarrassed by these words of praise from the Vicar General, but his Abbot did not give up. "That is all very flattering, Monsignor, but I also know you, and you would never jump to unwarranted conclusions. For you to change your mind you must have received more concrete evidence."

"Not evidence, Abbot, but I was in possession of certain information that these monks thought they were keeping to themselves," Schrattenbach grinned at this revelation. "Yesterday a notorious informer, one Alois Pech, came to the Bishop's Palace and gave me his latest reports. You may not know this, but your monastery, and some of its inhabitants, have been under close observation for some time now."

The gasps of surprise were a strong indication he was right, so the Vicar General continued. "Pech is one of Darmstaedter's informers. His assignment was to watch the monastery, and it's monks. He has been performing this duty for some time."

"Does he have toothache?" Brother Gregory asked suddenly, and a surprised Schrattenbach confirmed that the informer did indeed suffer from chronic tooth pain.

"How did you know?"

"Another of my scientific deductions," Mendel said from behind a cloud of cigar smoke, and the whole room laughed. But Schrattenbach didn't get an answer and never knew that Brother Gregory had found Pech's lunch and the herbal remedy it contained.

"Anyway," the Vicar general continued, "yesterday morning Pech saw Brother Joseph going to the telegraph office and followed him. He put these facts into his police report that night, and gave me a copy this morning. Pech has a growing family and supplements his income by selling his reports to more than one person. I don't think Darmstaedter knows this."

Few of the people in the room were shocked. Austria in Mendel's time was riddled with informers and the fact that Pech was serving more than one master didn't surprise anyone.

"I was curious. The electric telegraph is an amazing advance in communications, but as yet few monks use it. There had to be a special reason by Brother Joseph was sending messages to Vienna, and guess my surprise when I learnt that no one by the name of Lindenthal had sent a message that day, at all. The only person contacting Vienna for information was the very busy Oberstleutnant, who had never been near the telegraph office."

Napp was now looking angry, and his monks had the decency to blush and look crestfallen, but the Monsignor continued. "Using persuasive techniques I would rather not divulge, I was able to see a copy of the reply sent by Vienna. It was not hard to deduce what the list was, or why Mendel had requested it. When I came to the tribunal, therefore, I was prepared for a different outcome from the one everyone else expected. I was not disappointed."

He held out his glass for the Abbot to refill, and then asked a question of his own. "Where did you get that piece of the Abstimmungreservelist? I would have thought that Steefel would have destroyed it a long time ago?"

Attention turned to Mendel. "It was as fake as the beaker Steefel broke," he said, pulling the piece of paper out of his pocket, and then suddenly stuffing back again when he realized where the original piece of paper had come from. "It was a prop for my demonstration. We needed something dramatic to focus everyone's attention on the real reason the lists were destroyed. It would have been too hard to explain about Steefel and his brother and the lists and the conscription and the money and --- well, everything else. We wanted to surprise and scare Steefel. We actually had no hard evidence of his guilt, so we needed a way to provoke him into admitting his guilt by going and getting the beaker from its hiding place."

"That was risky," Brother Matthew admitted, "if Steefel had kept his nerve he could have scoffed and bluffed his way out of our accusations, and even made us look quite foolish. But we thought that the sudden revelation of how he had started the fire, coupled with the dramatic presentation of part of the list, would shock him enough to do something foolish, like getting the beaker and trying to escape."

"Which he did," added Brother Joseph, "but we were lucky. He could have already taken the beaker away from the monastery, and then we would never have been able to prove anything."

"Lucky?" said Monsignor Schrattenbach with deep suspicion in his voice. "I don't believe that for a moment. Your 'luck' wouldn't have anything to do with the mysterious decision of the police to search everyone on Monday morning, would it?"

"I have been meaning to ask you about that, Brother Gregory," fumed the Abbot. "I remember you telling me on Monday morning that some Hussites had evidence that would clear Klacel of all charges. Where is this evidence? What was that all about?"

With a deep laugh, the Vicar General said, "Let me help Brother Gregory with that one. If my guess is right he knew that Darmstaedter had an informer here inside the monastery. By pretending to give you information, he knew that an hour later Darmstaedter would also know about it. Am I right?"

This time it was Brother Matthew who answered. "Of course. That was my idea."

"But why?" Abbot Napp still wanted to know. "Why give the police misleading information, even by this unorthodox route?"

"We were very concerned that Steefel was going to take the Beaker and sell it on Monday morning," Brother Gregory said. "He needed the money and he wanted to get rid of the last piece of evidence against him. We knew that he had tried to get an estimate of the value of the beaker, and we needed to find some way of stopping him from taking the beaker into Brno that morning."

"So," Brother Matthew continued, "I suggested that we tell you that Hussites were planning to smuggle something into Brno, knowing the police would find out from their informer, and act on the information."

"By setting up road blocks and searching everyone," Abbot Napp said ruefully shaking his head as he realized the cleverness of his monks. "Steefel would not dare remove the beaker and try to get it into Brno while the searching was going on, so he left it in his room for another day."

"Brother Matthew," Monsignor Schrattenbach said, getting to his feet, "you are indeed lucky to have such friends as these. Which is more than you deserve. It is no secret that I think you are a foolish extremist when it comes to matters of Czech nationalism and Naturphilosophie, and that we have crossed swords in the past. However, not even you deserve to be punished for a crime you did not commit. I hope you have learnt something from this experience and will moderate your views from now on, but somehow I doubt it."

Abbot Napp prevented Brother Matthew from replying and escorted the Vicar General to his carriage. "I would like to thank you for your support," the Abbot said as Schrattenbach climbed into his seat.

"Don't thank me," replied the Monsignor adjusting his garments to the sudden coolness of the evening. "Thank your monks. You have just had a near escape. I hear the army will be moving to Olomouc in a couple of days, and our lives may return to normal, at least for a time. But war is coming and you would do well to prepare." He indicated to his coachman the he was ready to leave. "By the way, the Bishop liked your nephew and sends him the best wishes of the Palace, but next time he is in the area, suggest to him that he stay at the Grand Hotel."

A fine team of horses whipped the Vicar General off into the approaching night. As he walked back across the garden Abbot Napp heard the three monks returning to their rooms.

"I must start work right away on the proofs of my paper," Mendel was saying, "Herr Theimer is expecting them back this week, and I don't want to delay the publication of the journal. By the way, Brother Matthew, you owe me a case of red wine. I expect delivery soon." They all laughed. "One mystery remains, however. I wonder who told Darmstaedter the phony information about the Hussites? Who is the informer in this monastery?"

"Yes, it is a mystery," said Klacel sarcastically. "Perhaps that should be your next case Detective Mendel."