chapter twenty-two

Emil and Karl were so surprised when they saw Matilda that they froze in place with their hands pointing at the door. They felt a little silly, but Friedrich, the signalman, was even more embarrassed. “We were just playing a little game,” he explained right away to Matilda, who still stood at the door.

“Why are you standing there like that, Emil—and you, Karl? Aren’t you at all glad to see your Aunt Matilda?” she asked in a hoarse voice.

The boys leaped over to her like two puppies, overcome with happiness. Only then did they notice that Aunt Matilda was dressed in old, torn clothes. She looked small and bent over, the way she did on that Sunday when they first saw her in the park, when they first saw Hans as well. Right away Emil realized that although she was trying to put on a happy face, Matilda’s eyes were red and her face was pale, as if she had been crying all day.

Matilda looked around the room. She saw the floorboards that had been pulled up. But before she stepped inside, she cast a sharp glance at the old man. Her eyes pierced through him, as if she was looking for an answer to a question that had been tormenting her—a question that she didn’t even want to bring to her lips.

Emil and Karl noticed that Matilda looked suspiciously at the old man, who stood there helplessly, still pointing at the door—just as he had been while they were pretending to escape to the woods.

The signalman sensed that he was no longer welcome, and he began to move toward the door. He mumbled something and looked at Matilda, who still stared at him with penetrating eyes.

“No!” Matilda cried out in her hoarse voice. Her eyes flashed, like those of an animal at night. She stood up straight and thrust out her hand. “You won’t leave here alive until you answer my question: Who turned Hans over to those bloodhounds?”

“Who?” she shouted, in the very same way that Emil and Karl and Friedrich himself had done earlier.

The old man hesitated. He gazed fearfully at a shiny pistol that Matilda aimed at him. He looked away from her, because he was much more afraid of her blazing eyes.

The old man seemed to sober up and he stepped backwards, falling into a chair. But as soon as he collapsed into the little chair he became so small that he could barely be seen. Then a groan erupted from his crumpled body, and the expression on Matilda’s face changed immediately. All her anger fell away, like a mask. She gripped the gun firmly in her hand.

“Why don’t you shoot me, Matilda?” the old man wept.

“Make an end of it, finish me off. My life has already been eaten up, anyway,” the old man said, sobbing.

But Matilda said nothing. She was satisfied to see that the old man wept. The more he cried, the more her face relaxed—not out of pleasure, but from a sense that she could trust him.

“Emil was afraid that I would poison him. You’re suspicious of me, too. It’s high time for me to die, it’s long overdue.”

Matilda believed him now, but still she said nothing. She wanted him to go on crying and talking, so that she could be sure of him.

Emil realized what was happening. Quickly, stumbling over his words as he often did, he explained everything to Matilda—how Hans was arrested, and how he’d punched someone in the face.

“What did the man look like?” Matilda wanted to know.

“He had gray hair, with a bald spot in the middle of his head,” Karl said. “Hans called him a dirty traitor, and the man said that he didn’t have any choice, he couldn’t help it. Then Hans punched him hard.”

“So that dog did it!” Matilda shouted. Her eyes blazed even brighter.

“Today, tomorrow, I’m going to throw myself under the wheels of an express train. No one needs me any more, no one believes me any more,” said the old man, still sobbing.

“No, you won’t throw yourself under a train. You have no idea how much you mean to me now, because you’re not what I suspected you were. I had no idea who betrayed Hans. It’s a terrible world, no one trusts anyone else. People are shooting each other in the back. When I came here I sneaked along the walls like a stray cat. I know that they’re looking for me now, too. We’ve lost everything. We have to start all over again.”

The signalman still sat there, hunched over. He didn’t look up at Matilda, but he stopped crying.

“Where is Hans?” Emil asked.

Matilda didn’t answer. She said nothing for a long time. Finally, the old man got up and also asked, “Hans—where is he?”

“We’ve lost him,” Matilda said, “We’ve lost him completely. They’ll torture him to death. He didn’t have a chance to take his own life before he fell into their evil hands.

“Did they arrest him in the house?” Matilda wanted to know.

“No, he wanted to go inside, but they didn’t let him,” Emil answered.

Matilda ran quickly over to the bookcase. She climbed up on a chair and pushed aside several books. Then she pushed against the wall, and one of the boards fell out. She reached her hand deep into the open space in the wall and took out a small revolver.

“You didn’t wait in vain, my friend,” Matilda said to the gun, as if it were a living thing. “You waited patiently for just such an opportunity, and it wasn’t in vain.”

Matilda got down from the chair and stood up straight.

“We mustn’t waste any time now. I’m sure they’re looking for me. I have to go away and hide for a few weeks, and I might have to leave Vienna altogether. Emil, Karl, it hurts me to say this to you, but we have to run away from here now, while it’s dark. We’ll leave by a different route.”

She quickly took a blanket and wrapped it around Karl so cleverly that it covered him like a coat. Then she helped Emil into his coat.

The signalman stood there, stunned. He blinked his eyes.

“You’re really leaving behind your house, Matilda? You’re never coming back?”

“No, never. Good-bye, and please forgive me. It’s not my fault. It’s these times that are at fault; people have gone out of their minds.”

Matilda gave him her hand.

“If they ask you, you don’t know anything. You saw nothing, heard nothing.”

“This house will stay empty,” the signalman said to himself. Suddenly he noticed Emil and Karl.

“Good-bye, boys. When you run off to the woods, don’t forget about our game. When you’ve grown up to be strong men, come by my little hut and knock on the door three times. If I’m still there, I’ll come out and I’ll go with you.”

Matilda quickly looked around the house. Once more she ran over to the open space in the wall and took out a few books and some papers. She went over to the table and put out the lamp.

She stood in the darkness for a few minutes, as though it was somehow wrong for her to abandon the house. Emil and Karl and the signalman also stood there.

All at once the old man turned to go.

“I hear the ten o’clock train coming. I have to leave now. Good-bye.”

Matilda took Emil and Karl, and together they set out on the road leading to the woods. The boys turned, and they could still see the open door of the dark house. Matilda stopped for a moment and she, too, looked back at the door, which seemed to be calling them back reproachfully.

All at once there was a strong gust of wind. The door slammed shut, and the house stood there, a part of the silent darkness all around.