The Master's Apprentice - Oliver Potzsch Page 0,41

him—the Neckar, he gathered. This river also passed through Heidelberg, the city where he would have loved to study one day. Now, in late fall, the river shimmered metallic gray. It looked very cold and very deep, and there was no bridge he could see. Johann had to give away another one of his precious coins to an old ferryman, who eyed Johann the whole way across the river as though he was considering robbing him and tossing him into the water. Johann’s tiny fortune seemed to run through his fingers like melting wax.

In the next village, a few miles on, he gathered all his courage and decided to try his luck.

He was still traveling on the imperial road, and so there was a post station here—an inn with a stable for the horses of messengers and travelers. Johann took a deep breath and entered the small, dark inn. It was late afternoon and raining outside, so the taproom was full. All kinds of travelers had sought shelter at the inn. In the flickering light of the open fire, Johann saw a burly merchant wearing a fur coat and a beret, two itinerant Franciscan monks, and several peddlers, whose tall packs were leaning against the wall behind them. Someone else seemed to sit farther back, but Johann couldn’t quite make him out in the dim light. A handful of farmers were also sitting at the tables, enjoying the quiet period following the harvest with a few mugs of wine. They laughed and drank and paused only briefly when Johann came in and headed for one of the empty tables at the rear. But instead of taking a seat, he suddenly jumped onto the table and clapped his hands.

Now there was no going back.

“My esteemed audience!” he declared loudly, just like he’d seen jugglers in Knittlingen do. “Watch and be amazed, because I can multiply your money! Forget your worries and fears, because from today, you’ll be swimming in coins!”

The people murmured, some of them laughing, some of them jeering. But Johann had achieved what he wanted. He had their full attention.

With a theatrical gesture, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out one coin. He held it up, transferred it to his other hand, and placed it in his purse. He did the same with a second and a third coin. The first spectators began to mutter.

“He’s moving the coins from his pocket to his purse,” one of them grumbled. “What’s so special about that?”

Johann raised an eyebrow and pretended to be shocked. “Oh, you’re saying I should take the coins from somewhere else? Not from my pocket but . . . from the air, perhaps?” He took another kreuzer and dropped it in his purse. But this time, a new coin appeared in his hand as if by magic, then another and another. Each time, Johann took the coin and placed it in his leather purse, which he held up triumphantly once it was full.

“You see!” he shouted. “The pouch is full! A friendly spirit of the air handed me the coins.”

The people laughed and clapped their hands. It was a cheap trick Johann had learned from an itinerant juggler in Knittlingen, but here, in a small village, it worked well.

“Now let’s see if I find coins on you, too.” Grinning, Johann jumped off the table and walked over to the fat merchant. Johann puffed his cheeks and gestured toward the burly man, who eyed him suspiciously. “This moneybags strikes me as a good place to start. May I?”

He leaned over the merchant and pulled a coin from his nose, and then another one out of his mouth. When he leaned down to the man’s broad backside and coins jingled in his hand shortly thereafter, the people hooted with laughter.

“Dear Lord!” exclaimed Johann. “The man shits coins! I want a donkey like him in my stable.”

The inn guests held their bellies with laughter while the merchant just sat there with a sour face.

But then the man broke out in a grin and extended his hand demandingly. “What a pretty little trick,” he said. “And now give me back my money, boy.”

Johann stopped short. “What money?”

“The money you pulled out of my backside. It’s mine—you stole it from me, didn’t you?” He turned to the people sitting at the tables around him and gestured at a leather pouch by his side. “The lad cleaned me out! This bag was full of coins before, and now it’s empty.”

Johann’s smile froze.