OCR Text |
Show 37 Chapter 6 Working under the bright sun, which stayed hot and bothersome as though Gast had arranged that too, we hacked the salt pork into pieces. Then we dipped them in salt, rubbing and squeezing them on a piece of sacking so that the salt would work well into the fat. Perhaps because of all that salt I became thirsty often, and since the wells were tightly covered, I ran to the river to quench my thirst. Not a trickle of water flowed anywhere in Hamelin, and the mud of the riverbank began to dry and crack in the unusual heat. Gast's plan had turned out to be very simple, yet no one had thought of it before him. Of course, until the day before yesterday Hamelin town had been soaked with rain for so long that the idea of driving the rats crazy with thirst wouldn't have occurred to anyone. "Do you control the heavens, too, Gast?" I asked him, pointing to the bright blue sky which blazed like a new shield. "When you are bold, Geist, fortune is your mistress," he told me. "Fortune will give you what you need." I thought it might have been better if he had said that God was helping him, and been properly grateful. Thinking of God reminded me that this was the day Father Johann had promised to say a special mass for me, and I had forgotten all about it! All the things that were happening had driven it right out of my mind. I clapped my hand to my head in dismay. "What's the matter?" Gast asked. |