at I say."

"I am under no compulsion to listen to you," Knupf said after a pause.

Jonas shrugged. His feet _were_ beginning to hurt, he realized; he
sighed briefly, but there was no time or attention to spare for them. "I
could only see you by having myself accused of witchcraft," he said. "In
that way, you would be forced to listen to me. You may listen now, or
later at a full hearing of the Inquisitor's Court."

"And I am to take my choice?" Knupf said. He smiled briefly; his face
remained cold. The strong hands moved on the tabletop.

"It is a matter of indifference to me," Jonas said. "But the wait
becomes boring, after a time."

Knupf's eyebrows went up. "Boring is--hardly the word others would use."

"I am not like others," Jonas said. He wished for Claerten suddenly, but
there was no way to reach him safely. He had to make his move alone.

Well, he told himself, that was what he had wanted.

"I can tell you what is in your mind," he said.

The words hung in the air of the room for a long time. At last Knupf
nodded. "The Devil grants to many his power of seeing the minds of men,"
he said quietly.

"This is not Devil's work--as I shall prove," Jonas said. He shifted his
feet. "But let me establish one point at a time, in the most scholastic
manner; if you will permit."

"I permit," Knupf said. There was interest in his mind, overlaid with
skepticism, of course, but interest all the same. That, Jonas thought,
was a better sign than he had dared to hope for.

"Very well," he said. "Think of a word. Think of any single word. I
shall tell it to you."

"As any wizard might do, who had the help of his lord the Devil," Knupf
muttered. "Do you expect this to prove--"

"One thing at a time," Jonas said.

Knupf nodded. A second passed.

Jonas licked his lips. The possibilities paraded before him; on one
hand, success. On the other there was the torture and death of the
Inquisition. Jonas took a deep breath; there was no way to back out now.
Heroism looked a little empty, though.

He closed his eyes. "Cabbages," he said.

Knupf neither applauded, nor looked surprised. "As I have said," he
murmured, "that which the Devil can grant--" He paused and looked down
at his hands. "Am I to take this as a confession?" he said. "Do you wish
to hurry your own death?"

"I am no wizard," Jonas said.

"A stranger," Knupf said, "who enters a small city, is seen at
mysterious undertakings, plucks words out of the ce