lanking around the Holy Trinity churchyard, and dug up the earth to
build a new wall. I saw it myself, as I came past the church. Lord,
what a lot of bones they've dug out there! There's arms and legs and
heads, many more than the Doctor could possibly need."

"Much good that does us," answered Soelling. "They shut the gates at
seven o'clock and it's after eleven already."

"Oh, yes, they shut them," grinned Hans again. "But there's another
way to get in. If you go through the gate of the porcelain factory and
over the courtyard, and through the mill in the fourth courtyard that
leads out into Spring Street, there you will see where the planking is
torn down and you can get into the churchyard easily."

"Hans, you're a genius!" exclaimed Soelling in delight. "Here, Simsen,
you know that factory inside and out, you're so friendly with that
fellow Outzen who lives there. Run along to him and let him give you
the key of the mill. It will be easy to find an arm that isn't too
much decayed. Hurry along, now; the rest of us will wait for you
upstairs."

To be quite candid I must confess that I was not particularly eager to
fulfill Soelling's command. I was at an age to have still a sufficient
amount of reverence for death and the grave, and the mysterious
occurrence of the stolen arms still ran through my mind. But I was
still more afraid of Soelling's irony and of the laughter of my
comrades, so I trotted off as carelessly as if I had been sent to buy
a package of cigarettes.

It was some time before I could arouse the old janitor of the factory
from his peaceful slumbers. I told him that I had an important message
from Outzen, and hurried upstairs to the latter's room. Outzen was a
strictly moral character; knowing this, I was prepared to have him
refuse me the key which would let me into the fourth courtyard and
from there into the cemetery. As I expected, Outzen took the matter
very seriously. He closed the Hebrew Bible which he had been studying
as I entered, turned up his lamp and looked at me in astonishment as I
made my request.

"Why, my dear Simsen, it is a most sinful deed that you are about to
do," he said gravely. "Take my advice and desist. You will get no key
from me for any such cause. The peace of the grave is sacred. No man
dare disturb it."

"And how about the gravedigger? He puts the newly dead down beside the
old corpses, and lives as peacefully as anyone else."

"He is doing his duty," answered